Craftsmanship showcased in new exhibit at Pilgrimage Museum in Neukirchen bei Hl. Blut

Neukirchen b. Holy Blood.Pitcher and bobbin lace, brush and glass bead, wooden swing arm and paper rosette, woven carpet and iron votive animal – a motley hodgepodge? What connects these very different things, which will be on display in the pilgrimage museum in Neukirchen b. Holy Blood can be seen in a new exhibition? Does it all fit together and are the objects from the current production suitable for a presentation in the museum?

The cultural and museum department of the district of Cham, together with the Landeskundliches Museum Dr. Hostaš in Klatovy went in search of living traditional crafts as part of “traditional folk culture”.

Cham and the Czech Republic

Research and documentation was carried out in the Bavarian district of Cham and in the district of Klatovy in the Czech Republic. A selection of the results will be presented in one exhibition each: in the pilgrimage museum in Neukirchen b. Holy Blood, Cham district, and in the Czech open-air museum Chanovice, Klatovy district.

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The objects made of wood and metal, clay and textiles, leather, glass and paper, made of natural materials and residues are everyday things, for working days or holidays, for work or play, for decoration or for religious practice.

“Simply beautiful and good”

In their manual production, they are “simply beautiful and good”, as the title suggests, they are useful and sustainable. They were made by people in the region, from the Cham district and some also from the Klatovy region, by people with a sense of tradition and a love of craftsmanship, which is not always practiced as a profession, but is always practiced with joy and in the knowledge that it is tried and tested to preserve or rediscover. The exhibition in the pilgrimage museum refers to the uniqueness of what is made by hand and provides information at a media station about the people who created these products, about the background of the craft and the motives and stories of the craftsmen.

Traditional and cultural heritage

At the same time, the parallel exhibition of the Czech project partner will be presented in the Czech open-air museum Chanovice, Chanovice 133, CZ-341 01 Horaždovice, which, in addition to artefacts of traditional craftsmanship, also deals with immaterial cultural heritage. If you visit both exhibitions, you will receive reduced admission to exhibition two. Both exhibitions can be seen until 2027.

They were created as part of the ETZ project “Traditional Folk Culture of the Klatovy and Cham Regions”, carried out from 2021 to 2022 by the Regional Museum Dr. Hostaš Klatovy and the culture and museum department of the district of Cham with the pilgrimage museum in Neukirchen b. Holy Blood as associated project partner. For more than three decades, the Neukirchen b. Holy Blood in cross-border cultural cooperation. Changing exhibitions always take up interesting topics of this common cultural area. “simply beautiful and good” – products of traditional craftsmanship from the Cham district and the Klatovy region, from March 23, 2023 in the Neukirchen b. Hl. Blut, Marktplatz 10. Information is available at www.wallfahrtsmuseum.de or at (09947) 940821.

It is open from Tue to Fri, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Sat, Sun and public holidays 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.