100 years of Mainz Cathedral Museum: A treasure of history inspires!

100 years of Mainz Cathedral Museum: A treasure of history inspires!

The Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum in Mainz opened on June 12, 1925, and now there is a big celebration - the 100th birthday is just around the corner! The first well-wishers arrive on a solemn occasion, led by the humorous Mainz symbol Moguntia, who walks around the hallowed halls of the museum with a wink. “It doesn’t get any more golden than this,” she announces as she walks through the impressive treasury, which, since its renovation in 2018, has featured exquisite works of art from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Almost 30,000 exhibits and an area of ​​over 3,000 square meters make the cathedral museum one of the five largest diocesan institutions in Germany.

Celebrations underway!

Director Winfried Wilhelmy has announced an exciting anniversary program that includes numerous concerts, creative offers and a big birthday party for young and old on April 26, 2025. The highlight of the celebrations will be five special exhibitions that will focus on the art and history of the house over the next twelve months. The first exhibition entitled "Inside! Views of Mainz Churches around 1800" opens on October 30, 2024 and shows rediscovered images that provide insights into 19th century church architecture.

The cathedral museum's treasury reveals past treasures and extraordinary objects such as chalices and liturgical vessels that were once considered the most valuable in the West. Mainz's Willigis Cathedral, a masterpiece of architecture, looks back on over 1,000 years of history and contains stories of looting and loss that shape the eventful past of the cathedral's treasures. Moguntia, the symbolic figure, looks at the “new clunkers” with a smile and causes amusement with her lively comments: “In the past, people chiseled more, now it’s posted!”