The Eindhoven Museum is an

archaeological open-air museum An archaeological open-air museum is a non-profit permanent institution with outdoor true-to-scale architectural reconstructions primarily based on archaeological sources. It holds collections of intangible heritage resources and provides an int ...

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, focusing on the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

and

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

in the province of

North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the we ...

. The museum is situated in the Genneper Parken area at the south side of the city. It focuses on the daily lives and routines of people in the time periods mentioned, through demonstrations and recreations of buildings, practices and routines. For example, there are demonstrations of cooking on open fire, of games played in the Middle Ages and groups of school children are allowed to spend the night in the

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

s. The museum has several distinct target audiences. Primary among these are school children, who comprise most of the visitors on weekdays. In the weekends and during holiday season the museum focuses on regular tourists. The museum features a lot of

living history Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to ree ...

exhibits as well as semi-historical reenactments. During holiday seasons extra activities are staged for children. The museum also arranges historically themed corporate and family outings outside of opening hours. Some 60.000 people visited the museum in 2005.

History

The Eindhoven Museum was founded in 1982 by a group of teachers from the local teachers academy led by Anneke Boonstra; it was then known as the "prehistoric village". The first ten years were spent slowly and painstakingly building an Iron Age village with help of many volunteers and local unemployed people. In 1995 the museum drew national and international attention with a life experiment. Officially called "For 2 Moons", it involved a small group (including the director Anneke Boonstra) withdrawing from civilization for two months to live life as it was in the Iron Age. Towards the end of the 1990s the museum began receiving European subsidies, allowing it to double in size and add a whole new theme on the new grounds: the Middle Ages. The museum is one of the founding members o
EXARC
the international ICOM affiliated association of

s and

experimental archaeology Experimental archaeology (also called experiment archaeology) is a field of study which attempts to generate and test archaeological hypotheses, usually by replicating or approximating the feasibility of ancient cultures performing various tasks ...

. From 2006 to 2009 the museum was project lead of a European project of 8 archaeological open-air museums
''live''ARCH
This project was co-authored by

Roeland Paardekooper Roeland, Roelandt or Roelant (all pronounced ) is a Dutch masculine given name equivalent to English Roland. It is a Germanic name consisting of the elements -hrod- ("fame") and -land- (i.e. "famous in the land") or -nand- ("brave").

. Luc Eekhout became director of the museum in September 2010.

References

External links

Museum's Website
{{authority control Open-air museums in the Netherlands Museums established in 1982 Archaeological museums in the Netherlands Museums in Eindhoven History of North Brabant 1982 establishments in the Netherlands 20th-century architecture in the Netherlands