Sandsteinmuseum Kloster Cornberg

About the museum

The museum is located in the west wing of the former convent of Cornberg, whose plain buildings are themselves constructed from the banded Cornberg sandstone. After extensive renovation beginning in 1989, the abbey complex was opened in 1994 as a cultural centre with a community hall, hotel and museum.

The geological and palaeontological section explains the formation of the roughly 250-million-year-old sandstone in the Permian. A true-to-scale profile shows the sequence of strata in the adjacent quarry, and a diorama with life-size animal figures depicts the landscape in which the tracks of small saurians, noted worldwide, were formed. Fossils from the Kupferschiefer of the Richelsdorf Mountains and the Zechstein bear witness to the marine life of that time.

Further sections are devoted to sandstone quarrying, which was carried out for around 700 years, the working of the hard stone and its use from masonry to works of art, copper shale mining, and the history of the abbey and the miners' settlement of Cornberg. The disused quarry behind the abbey is considered an outstanding geotope in Hesse and can be visited.

Highlights

• Saurian tracks from Cornberg sandstone
• Diorama of a landscape 250 million years ago
• Fossils from the Kupferschiefer
• Recreated stonemason's workshop
• Adjacent sandstone quarry as a geotope

Admission & discounts

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Accessibility

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Kids & families

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Getting there & parking

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Amenities & dining

• Restaurant: not available

Currently no catering at the Hotel-Restaurant Kloster Cornberg.

Events & venue rental

In the abbey, the municipality rents out conference rooms in the community hall and the abbey church; civil wedding ceremonies in the “Benedictus” room.

Plan your visit