Vortaunusmuseum, Museum in Oberursel-Mitte, Oberursel (Taunus), Germany
The Vortaunusmuseum is a local history museum in the center of Oberursel (Taunus), housed in an early 18th-century building on the town's main square. Its rooms display objects from many periods, ranging from Stone Age finds and Celtic artifacts to medieval remains and items from the town's industrial past.
The building was constructed in 1705 over the remains of earlier medieval structures, some of which are still visible today. The museum itself first opened in 1976 and was relaunched after thorough renovation work in 1987.
The museum's permanent exhibition traces soapbox racing and its predecessor, children's automobile races, a local tradition in Oberursel. A separate memorial room shows originals by the painter Hans Thoma, who lived in the town for a time. Annual Advent and spring markets add to the programme.
The museum occupies the half-timbered house at Marktplatz 1, its narrow side facing the square, with the long wing running along the top end of the market. The vaulted cellar from around 1500 and the former brewery buildings lie at the edge of the upper courtyard, today Schulstraße 30/32. The building is not under renovation; it reopened as a modern regional museum in summer 1987.
One of the museum's displays covers the history of printing in Oberursel during the Reformation, when the town was known by its Latin name 'Ursellis' and published religious texts. These early prints, called 'Ursellis Drucke', made the town a small center of book printing in the 16th century.
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