Schnütgen Museum, Religious art museum in Kulturquartier, Cologne, Germany.
The Schnütgen Museum is an art museum in the Arts Quarter of Cologne, housed inside the Romanesque Church of St. Cecilia. The building dates to the 12th century and holds carved ivories, stained glass, textiles, metalwork, and religious paintings from the early Middle Ages onward.
Alexander Schnütgen, a Cologne priest, spent decades collecting medieval church art and donated his collection to the city in the early 20th century. The Church of St. Cecilia, which was no longer used for worship at the time, was then converted to serve as the museum building.
The museum takes its name from Alexander Schnütgen, a Cologne priest who spent his life gathering medieval church art. Seeing the objects inside a real church changes how you experience them, because the space and the works belong to the same tradition.
The museum is in the Arts Quarter, close to the Old Town, and easy to reach on foot from the city center. It shares the area with other museums, so a single visit can take in more than one in a day.
Among the objects on display is an ivory comb from the 9th century, one of the oldest surviving pieces of its kind in Europe. Combs like this one were made for liturgical rituals, not everyday use, which is why so few have survived.
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