Historical Museum Bamberg, Historical museum in Bamberg, Germany

The Historical Museum Bamberg occupies the Alte Hofhaltung, a Renaissance palace with an arcaded courtyard next to the cathedral in the city center. The building houses collections of stone sculptures, crafted objects, and clocks that document regional history from antiquity through modern times.

Cathedral vicar Joseph Hemmerlein bequeathed his painting collection to the city in 1838, forming the basis of the municipal art collections. Until 1935 the growing museum occupied rooms of the former Benedictine monastery on Michaelsberg. Since 1938 it has been housed in the Renaissance buildings of the Alte Hofhaltung, and from 1938 to 1957 it was called Fränkisches Heimatmuseum.

The museum keeps the "Bamberger Götzen", sandstone figures found in 1858 in Gaustadt, whose dating is disputed between the Neolithic and the 1st century AD. It also holds objects of the Bamberg guilds, baroque and rococo clocks of the 16th to 19th centuries, and a Christmas crib collection shown each Advent in the historic Marstall, the prince-bishops' former stables.

The museum sits in the Alte Hofhaltung directly beside the Kaiserdom, so it is reached on foot through the cathedral square. The galleries occupy several wings, including a half-timbered Renaissance wing where the painting collection hangs. Since 1987 the exhibition areas have been steadily expanded because the space no longer sufficed for the collection.

The museum keeps the original door knob known as the Apfelweibla from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Golden Pot", alongside a collection of scientific instruments of international standing. Most of these astronomical and mathematical instruments date from the 16th to 18th centuries and come from monasteries and colleges such as the Jesuit college in Bamberg, Banz, Ebrach, Langheim and the prince-bishop's university.