Archaeology of Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region from the Neolithic to the modern era – in the church of the former Carmelite monastery.
October 5, 2026 – January 31, 2027
A replica of the bronze bucket from eastern Bohemia (10th/9th century BC), in which traces of a beer-like drink were detected, tells of feasts and rituals of the Late Bronze Age.
November 4, 2026 – July 4, 2027
Figurines, house models, and everyday objects from two Neolithic settlements near Skopje shed light on the beginnings of agriculture and settled life.
December 1, 2026 – April 4, 2027
The show presents an extraordinary Celtic site in western Switzerland where vessels, tools, and human remains were deposited in hundreds of pits around 100 BC.
The museum grew out of the archaeological department of the Historisches Museum and was founded in 1937 as an independent museum of local prehistory and early history. During World War II it had to close and was temporarily merged with the Historisches Museum again; from 1952 it once more existed as an independent institution, first in the Dominican monastery and from 1953 in the Holzhausenschlösschen.
In the 1980s the museum moved to a new home in the former Carmelite monastery in the western part of the Altstadt (old town). The Gothic monastery church, badly damaged in the war, was converted into an exhibition space, and the architect Josef Paul Kleihues added a new building on the south side of the historic ensemble, where the previously scattered collections could be brought back together.
The collection ranges from the first farming settlements in the Rhine-Main area some 7,500 years ago, through Bronze and Iron Age grave finds from the Frankfurter Stadtwald (city forest) and the Roman town of NIDA in today's Heddernheim, to the monasteries and pilgrimage of the Middle Ages. There are also holdings from the ancient Near East, Egypt, Cyprus, and Greco-Roman antiquity.
Since 2018 the Kaiserpfalz franconofurd beneath the Stadthaus am Markt has belonged to the museum as a branch site; remains of a Roman bath, the Carolingian royal palace, and medieval cellars can be seen there. The St. Anna Chapel displays excavation finds from the Leonhardskirche. Since 2026 the foyer and parts of the permanent exhibition have been undergoing redesign.
| Adults | €8 |
|---|---|
| Reduced | €4School pupils, students (except U3L), federal volunteer service participants, the unemployed, people with severe disabilities (degree of disability 50 or higher), Frankfurt Card holders |
| Children & teens | freefree up to age 17 · Children and teens under 18 get free admission. |
| Seniors | –No senior discount mentioned. |
| Visitors with disabilities | €4companion free · Reduced with a degree of disability of 50 or higher; a necessary companion is free according to the admission rules of the municipal museums. |
| Students & apprentices | €4Free for students of Goethe University, the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, the HfMDK, and the Frankfurt School; trainees free. |
| Groups (20+ people) | €4 per personAccording to the admission rules of the municipal museums, groups of 20 or more pay the reduced price. Group tours by registration (fuehrungen.archaeologie@stadt-frankfurt.de, tel. 069 212-39344, Tue, Thu, Fri 9:00–13:00). |
| Families | –No family ticket; children and teens under 18 free. |
| MuseumsuferTicket (2 days, all Museumsufer museums) | €21reduced €12, family €32 |
| MuseumsuferCard (1 year) | €89reduced €45, family €150 |
Free admission: Free admission on the last Saturday of the month (Satourday; in August on the second-to-last Saturday).
Frankfurt-Pass and Kulturpass holders and refugees pay €1. Free admission also with the MuseumsuferCard/-Ticket, Ehrenamts-Card (volunteer card), ICOM ID, and for members of the friends' association. No online tickets.
According to the Museumsufer portal, largely accessible with an elevator; the restroom is listed there as only partially wheelchair-accessible. The museum's own accessibility page is still under construction. Occasional tours with sign language interpretation (e.g. October 2026).
Great for kids & families
| Kids’ admission | free up to age 17 |
|---|
Family workshops on Satourday, holiday workshops, and the ARCHÆOkids event series.
Karmeliterkloster
U1–U5 and U8 to Willy-Brandt-Platz or Dom/Römer; trams 11, 12, and 14 to Karmeliterkloster/Willy-Brandt-Platz.
No on-site parking at the museum.
No parking of its own.
The new website does not yet provide information on a café, shop, or coat check.
Rental inquiries to Vermietung.AMF@stadt-frankfurt.de; the website does not give details on rooms and capacities.
| Guided tours | yes |
|---|---|
| Photography | Photography allowed (including for publication on blogs). |
| Good to know | Public themed tours according to the event calendar, some for a fee. Group tours by registration. The Kaiserpfalz franconofurd is about a 10-minute walk away on Domplatz. |
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