Photo: Ralf Hermann Melber · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Zehentstadel Heroldingen

Historic tithe barn from 1739 in Heroldingen, with farm tools and agricultural machinery as a small farm museum – accessible by appointment only.

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About the museum

The Zehentstadel in the village center of Heroldingen once served to receive and store the tithe, a levy paid in kind. A predecessor building already stood here before the Thirty Years' War; it was enlarged and repaired in 1688 and 1722. In late May 1739 it was torn down; the present building with its massive hipped roof (Vollwalmdach) was erected by August 31 of the same year.

After the end of the tithe system in 1848, the Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein sold the barn to private owners in 1861. From 1975 the dilapidated building belonged to the Verein Rieser Bauernmuseum, which, in cooperation with historic preservation authorities, restored it fully by 1978. It was the first completed project of the association, founded in 1973; in September 1978 it was dedicated with a large celebration.

Today the barn serves as a small farm museum, showing agricultural tools and machines of earlier generations, including a reaper-binder from 1937, a pin-threshing machine from farm ownership, and a Lanz Bulldog from 1921. The Rieser Bauernmuseums- und Mühlenverein, which emerged from the merger with the Rieser Mühlenverein, maintains the building at considerable financial expense and opens it at least once a year and by appointment.

Highlights

Tithe barn from 1739 with massive hipped roof
Lanz Bulldog from 1921
Reaper-binder from 1937
Pin-threshing machine from farm ownership