Bonn's regional museum LVR-LandesMuseum offer dazzling insights into the Rhineland over almost half a million years.

The museum collects the Rhineland’s prehistoric and human heritage, featuring Roman finds, Neanderthal skeletons and art through centuries. The valley that gave its name to the early humans is in the region.

The museum collection has even older objects from the Rhineland dated more than 400,000 years old.

Real Rhineland people and their real lives

Remains of a Neanderthal human living about 40,000BCE are on display. The set comprises 16 fossilised bones, including part of a skull, found during lime quarrying in Mettmann in the mid-19th century. It is believed a cave there was occupied by these early humans about the time Homo sapiens entered Europe.

The early Celtic and Roman presence in the Rheinland is the most prominent part of the museum's collection. There are many statues of Roman gods and goddesses and the exterior of the museum includes a fragment of Roman arches.

The jewellery of a ruling-class Celtic woman from the 4th century BCE shows the affluence of the region even before Rome.

An intricately carved memorial stone of the centurion Marcus Caelius records a great Roman disaster, the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9CE. Three Roman legions were ambushed and annihilated by a federation of Germanic tribes under Arminius and Marcus fell in battle with his men. The stone shows Marcus resplendent in his armour.

Another monument remembers the 1st century legionary Publius Clodius, an upper-class Roman depicted dressed as a citizen.

Another highlight of the museum is the grave goods of a 6th century Frankish chieftain or prince who, judging from an engraved gold ring found on his finger, was named Bodi. The grave, a wooden chamber found near Xanten, was the best equipped of about 900, despite having been robbed. A face image is engraved with the name.

Some of Bodi’s weapons were buried with him, a Byzantine coin had been placed in his mouth and a glass bowl in his hand. A unique suit of iron lamellar armour has been reconstructed from the find and there was part of a gold helmet.

Coming with a name and a face, the find is a rare insight into the lifestyle of the Frankish upper class. The graves of other Frankish lords provide a contrast.

A bigger permanent exhibition of the prehistoric, Roman and early medieval archaeology collection is on the second level of the museum and is expected to be complete late in 2025.

Art and culture spreads through the Rhineland

The history of art in the Rhine valley is long and the Bonn museum’s collection begins in the Middle Ages. These pieces include painted altars and panels. But the development of Rhenish art is followed through the Renaissance and Baroque periods and represents the lifestyle of the Cologne prince-electors, who used Bonn as a base for two centuries.

Dutch art forms a big part of the collection and there are about 170 paintings by Dutch and Flemish masters, including works by Pieter Breughel the elder. This reflects the close links between the Low Countries and the Rhineland.

Romantic paintings of the middle Rhine region are a large category and there is a large collection of prints and drawings.

Medieval works of sculpture are also on display. The highlight from the Gothic period is the Röttgen Pietà, a 14th century carving showing Mary embracing Christ after the Passion, still showing signs of its original paint. The carving would have been used for contemplation and prayer, representing a divine experience of suffering.

Craft objects from this period are also in the collection, including goldsmithing and ivory work. Especially intriguing is a cup carved from coconut and mounted and embellished with craft work in the mid-16th century.

The coin cabinet contains about 100,000 pieces from the region, going back to Celtic times and extending to currency notes and the modern period.

The museum is also a place for temporary exhibitions of culture, especially of painting, graphical works and photography of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Some visitors have criticised the museum as lacking a theme, but the collection traces the development of human culture in the Rhineland from earliest times to the present. Perhaps this is clearer in its other name, Rheinisches Landesmuseum für Archäologie, Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte. For a specific focus on the history of Bonn, visit Bonn Stadtmuseum.

LVR-LandesMuseum is at Colmantstraße 14, only a few minutes’ walk from Bonn’s main station. Using the museum’s smartphone mediaguide or audio guides is advised.

Check out Raven Travel Guides Europe blogs on Münsterplatz, the heart of Bonn, the Beethoven-Haus, Haus der Geschichte and the remarkable Namen-Jesu-Kirche.

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