The Geschichtspark Bärnau-Tachov ('History Park') is an archaelogical open-air museum that shows reconstructions of Slavic and Germanic houses from the Middle Ages.We are not just a regular museum, but a living replica of history where you can see, feel and live your very own mediaeval experience.

Opening times 2012 (March - November):

Tuesday - Sunday 10 - 18h (entrance till 17h)

Closed on mondays except for bank holidays.

Guided tours upon request.

For further information and bookings you are welcome to contact our Visitor Service:

Geschichtspark Bärnau-Tachov

Phone: 0049-(0)9635/92499-75

Fax: 0049-(0)9635/92499-95

Want to know more about us? Read on... or visit us!

Our visitors discover a Slavic village around the year 1000 AD. House types that have been passed down for centuries constitute a harmonic hamlet, integrated into the rolling landscape of the little river plain near the pond. Livestock farming and agriculture were the basic necessities of life and central activity in our little village. The people still worshipped their pagan gods in natural surroundings.

But history proceeds and on the margins of the village, the your eye is caught by the signs of those developments. In the 9th century, the Franconian conquest expands to the east. Charlemagne extends his empire and the Ottonians fortify and organise the new territories and build castles. Here, too, at the border between Germanic and Slavic dominions, such an administrative seat comes into being. Placed on an enditched artificial mound, the fortified tower of wood dominates the landscape. The new rulers also brought Christianity and so, in the protecting presence of the motte-and-bailey castle, a wooden church is built – close to the inhabitants of the village, but not quite a part of their community yet.

If castle and church appear old-fashioned today, in those days they were signs of progress and so, the visitor passes them to arrive in a 13th century village. The houses cannot be classified as “Slavic” or “early German” by their sight, but there are signs of new technologies: sawn boards and beams, a forge with big bellows, three-field crop rotation with “modern” ploughs and real timber framing on the building of the “new” tavern. Its keeper is able to afford new constructions, as he benefits from the Golden Road which leads from Nuremberg to Prague and Bärnau lies almost midway – and furthermore, it is the last stop before the border.

The buildings

On the open-air site of the Geschichtspark, houses will be erected as one-to-one models. They are museum reconstructions built from the original materials. By the use of authentic building materials and techniques, the buildings become stable, weatherproof and can be used and walked in. Crafts presentations and hands-on workshops, period costumes and items from everyday life create a realistic impression of a mediaeval village and of our ancestor’s daily living environment in this region.