Bajuwarenhof Kirchheim, Archaeological open-air museum in Kirchheim bei München, Germany.
Bajuwarenhof Kirchheim is a reconstructed Merovingian farmstead (c. 450–750 AD) on a 2,800 m² meadow in the Heimstetten part of Kirchheim. Four buildings stand on a west-east axis: a longhouse with reed roof and central hearth, a workshop building, and two sunken-floor huts, one with a smithy. A wattle fence, herb garden, experimental fields and a wooden well frame lie between them.
Founded in winter 2003, the Bajuwarenhof was Kirchheim's official contribution to the 2005 Federal Garden Show, and the municipality provided the 2,800-square-metre site. The reconstruction follows excavations, mainly in the Munich gravel plain, such as the early 1980s settlement digs south of Tassilostraße in Kirchheim. The first building, the Nebengebäude, was completed for the 2005 show; in 2024 it was dismantled because its load-bearing posts had decayed, and it is to be rebuilt nearby.
Volunteers run the site and appear as "living exhibits" in Living History, wearing reconstructed early medieval clothing and carrying period equipment and tools. They demonstrate old crafts and explain everyday life in the 6th and 7th centuries. The herb garden between the longhouse and the outbuilding, planted in April 2005, holds kitchen and medicinal herbs, useful plants and old vegetable varieties.
The museum is partly seasonal and best visited in warm weather to explore the outdoor areas fully. Guided tours are offered year-round for groups, providing deeper insight into the reconstructed structures.
The site is run entirely by volunteers, who also built the buildings, gardens and fields. They appear as "living exhibits" in recreated early medieval clothing and equipment, demonstrating old crafts. The 2,800-square-metre grounds were provided by the municipality on a former spoil dump, screened from the nearby A 99 motorway by a densely planted noise barrier.
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