Mittenwalde Museum of Local History

The Heimatmuseum Mittenwalde is a folk museum in the city of Mittenwalde, in the district of Dahme-Spreewald, in the state of Brandenburg, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located in a listed half-timbered house at Salzmarkt 5 in the center of the city.
In the 16th century, there was a building with rising masonry and a fieldstone cellar on the site of the current local history museum. This house was probably replaced by a half-timbered house in the late 16th or early 17th century. During this work, two cellars were also created made of fieldstone walls with intermediate masonry and a brick vault. The homogeneous masonry, in which 28 × 14 × 8 cm stones were used, is striking. The dimensions differ from the stones used in the construction of the Berlin Gate: stones measuring 27 × 13 × 10 cm were used there. The brick barrel in the first basement room rests on fieldstone masonry to the east, which probably dates from the previous building. To the west, it leads directly to the ground. The investigations showed that the façade at that time must have been about two meters further north, on the courtyard side. In the 17th century, perhaps also in the 18th century, the half-timbered building of today was built. It is still unclear whether the existing building was demolished or whether it was the victim of a fire in the city. Some stove tiles from this time have been preserved, which were found during excavations in the second cellar and other pits of the building. During this time, the barrel vault of the first cellar room was partially demolished. It has been replaced by two segments of steep barrels so that the cellar can be entered from the ground floor. This resulted in an increase in the space above about 30 cm. On the south wall of the first cellar, a wall of dry clay bricks has been erected, which extends to the second floor. There are two openings inside. The exhaust fumes from the stove were probably evacuated from the building through them, as at least the second opening is located directly above the smoke kitchen. It is also conceivable that they were simple windows. In the following centuries, reconstructions were carried out in the form of wall openings and the installation of new walls.

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