Orgelbaumuseum Schloss Hanstein, Organ building museum in Ostheim vor der Rhön, Germany

The Orgelbaumuseum in Schloss Hanstein fills over 700 square meters with organs from different periods, both reconstructions and original instruments. The castle's four floors house organs dating from the 14th century through the 20th century.

The museum association was founded in spring 1993 on the initiative of organ builders Horst and Günter Hoffmann, after a request from Gerhard Schmidt of the Thuringian Organ Museum led to a collection being assembled with Hoffmann & Schindler. It opened to the public in 1994 in Hanstein Castle, built in 1490 and enlarged in 1604, which passed to the town in 1868. Ostheim's organ-building tradition reaches back to the 17th century, beginning with Andreas Weiß (1596–1670).

The museum's name refers to Ostheim's organ-building trade, continued today by the Hoffmann & Schindler workshop. Visitors can try instruments themselves, and the museum runs organ walks, concerts and lectures, with occasional trips to historic organs in the Rhön region.

If you want to learn more about the instruments, you can arrange a guided tour with technical explanations, but you need to call ahead and book a time. The castle has no elevator, so you climb stairs to reach the organs on different floors.

The Gothic block organ on display is a reconstruction; the original from around 1350 is kept in the State Historical Museum in Stockholm. The museum also holds a reconstruction of a Romanesque organ described around 1122 by the Benedictine monk Theophilus of Corvey.