Texas Wendish Heritage Museum, Museum in Serbin, Texas, USA

The Texas Wendish Heritage Museum in Serbin tells the story of a community with roots in Lusatia, a region in eastern Germany. The site comprises a main building with displays, restored schoolrooms, two log structures from the 1850s, and the adjacent St. Paul Lutheran Church built in 1871.

The first arrivals came in 1849, but the major migration occurred in 1854 when over 500 people arrived on the sailing ship Ben Nevis and established Serbin. This community sustained its language, religion, and traditions across generations as it took root in Texas.

The museum's collection centres on Sorbian folk art, notably decorated Easter eggs, along with folk costumes, manuscripts and a large body of photographs. Its Lillie Moerbe Caldwell Memorial Library gathers printed works in Sorbian, German and English, while the archive holds personal papers and genealogical material on Sorbian families.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. It stands next to St. Paul Lutheran Church in Serbin, with two original log farmhouses from 1856 on the grounds. Allow time to see the exhibition rooms, archive, library and souvenir shop.

The museum occupies the former Sorbian secondary school of Serbin, where the Wendish settlers' children were taught. Two original log farmhouses built in 1856, shortly after the first Lusatian immigrants arrived, stand separately on the museum grounds.