Museum in the museum – the Bird Hall

The Bamberg Bird Hall – a historical natural history cabinet and a museum within a museum.

The Bird Hall is rightly considered one of the most beautiful historical natural history rooms in the world. It is a stroke of luck that this monument of natural and cultural history has survived more than 200 years of changeful history in almost its original condition. Let this unique “museum within a museum” transport you to another world!

The Bird Hall impresses already by its size: It extends over a floor space of about 200 square meters, its height is 8 meters. A mirrored vault with pointed caps spans the entire room. As a remnant of the former intermediate ceiling, an arcade provides access to the display cabinets on the upper floor.

On the walls of the lower floor, 15 distinguished display cases are integrated into the surrounding which is richly decorated wood paneling. Some of them are crowned by busts of famous naturalists flanked by putti. On other display cases, putti with garlands of fruit are enthroned next to urns of fire. Carved allegories of the classical elements – fire, water, earth, air – are found as supraports above the four rounded corners of the room on the lower level. The carvings are the work of Georg Joseph Mutschele, a well-known Franconian artist of his time.

A large, multi-part row of display cases stands in the center of the room. It was only integrated into the room in the second half of the 19th century. The four pyramid or obelisk-like display cases, which house the hummingbird, egg and nest collections, are always considered particularly attractive. The basic color of the room is white, but the backs of the display cases are set off in vivid blue.

The white color, the beautiful arcade, the strictly ordered patterns of the decorations, and the pyramidal and obelisk display cases are attributed to the Early Classicist style. The lush putti and depictions of fruit, on the other hand, reveal clear echoes of the preceding Baroque epoch.