Exhibitions

The exhibition rooms at Altzella Monastery explain the history of the monastery and of the religious order, show items found in the demolished monastery buildings and present the burial place of the Wettins. A special exhibition topicalizes historical mining in the Saxon and Bohemian Ore Mountains, which had also started out from Altzella.

Permanent exhibition

The exhibition rooms in the Converses’ House of the Altzella Monastery accommodate various permanent exhibitions that deal with the history of the monastery and of the religious order.

History of the order

On the ground floor in the Converses’ House

Displays and models inform you about the emergence and propagation of the Cistercian Order, the order’s rules, the entire and conclave complex of a Cistercian monastery by example of the Cistercian Altzella Monastery.

The architectural history

In the Scriptorium, upstairs from the Monastery Café & Museum Shop

The Altzella Monastery – what it once could have looked like

An almost 17-minute animation shows everything about the emergence and history of the monastery. Thanks to modern technology, the former monastery rises before your eyes in its full grandeur and old splendor. The film is available in German, English, French, Czech and Polish.

The film on the architectural history is showing upstairs from the Scriptorium.

The architecture

In the Converses’ House, Refectorium

The Lapidarium with finds and things worth knowing about the architectural history of the monastery

The architecture of the Altzella Monastery was highly modern in its time and united some unique elements of styles. There are inspirations from the Mediterranean region as well as progressive ideas of the late medieval upper-Saxon architectural history. A collection of finds in the Refectorium bears witness to today’s “invisible monastery”

Eike von Repgow’s 'Sachsenspiegel'

In the Converses’ House, Library Hall (upper floor)

One of the Dresden illuminated manuscripts

The 'Sachsenspiegel' is the most important historical testimony to the medieval legal practice and coined sustainably our modern understanding of law and order. According to current research, it is assumed to have emerged within the reach of the Altzella Monastery. A multimedia information point illustrates the legal interpretation and legal practice in medieval Saxony.

Burial ground of the Wettins

In the Mausoleum

The Mausoleum completed in 1794 accommodates the burial ground of the Wettin founding family. A total of 27 members of the House of Wettin were buried in the crypt underneath the marble memorial stone. In a guided group tour, you can see the interior of the Mausoleum. A little exhibition in the anteroom informs about the burial ground of the founding family and the creation of the romantic landscape park.