The Artists' Colony Museum in the Ernst Ludwig House built in 1901, documents the history of the Darmstadt Artists' Colony (1899-1914) on the Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021.

The museum provides a comprehensive overview of the creative work of universal artists such as Joseph Maria Olbrich and Peter Behrens. The idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk as the ideal of the Art Nouveau movement is brought to life in spatial ensembles. The museum's sculpture studios, built in 1904, host special exhibitions from the 19th century to the present.

Downhill from the museum lie seven of the eight artists‘ houses, which were show-cased during the first exhibition in 1901 (three further exhibitions were held in 1904, 1908 and 1914).

The Artists' Colony Museum is certified for accessibility in the "Reisen für Alle" project.

The detailed information can be found here: www.reisen-fuer-alle.de

Partner of the DARMSTADT CARD:

reduced admission

The Hochzeitsturm (Wedding Tower), with its famous five fingers profile, was a wedding present from the city of Darmstadt to Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig and Princess Eleonore von Solms-Hohensolms-Lich in 1905. It is a viewing platform and, since 1993, also a branch of the Darmstadt registry office. It has become a symbol of the Darmstadt City of Science.

The observation deck offers a panoramic view of the city.

The Wedding Tower has an elevator, which can be reached via a few steps.

Model of the Wedding Tower:

A touching model of the Wedding Tower can be found in front of the tower at the staircase in the plane grove.

Info:

On wedding days, access to the Wedding Tower is restricted. For the exact opening hours on these days, please call 06151 / 701 90 87.

Partner of the DARMSTADT CARD:

reduced admission

The Swan Temple with its 8 double pillars and dark glazed ceramic tiles was designed by Albin Mueller for the exhibition of the Artists‘ Colony in 1914 as a ceramic garden pavillion. A special feature is the acoustic: if you stand in the middle and speak, the little temple becomes a whispering gallery.

The Sutter House was built in 1908. Inspired by the traditionalist style, the variously broken and richly decorated structure, as well as the entire interior, was designed by the architect Conrad Sutter. Sutter was also the builder of the villa.

Villa Haus Sutter was the last in a series of three individual houses built by private clients for the "Hessian State Exhibition" in 1908. According to the exhibition catalog, the houses were exhibited under the architect's own artistic responsibility, against the protest of the jury.

In place of the so-called "Villa in Rosen" stands today a modern fountain by the sculptor Karl Hartung. The city of Darmstadt bought this work at the World's Fair in Brussels in 1958, in order to place it again on the Mathildenhöhe in 1959. However, the fountain was not officially consecrated to the name "Ernst Ludwig Fountain" until 1965, when a plaque was placed in honor of the last reigning Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. We see here a relief wall laid out in a semicircle, surrounding a stepped water basin. This fountain originally stood under a "floating" pavilion designed by Otto Bartning, where the German spas advertised their springs.

As the only residential building in the 1904 exhibition of the artists' colony, an ensemble consisting of three houses was built on the corner of Stiftstraße and Prinz-Christians-Weg. Here, too, the client was Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig, and the group of houses was designed by the architect Joseph Maria Olbrich as an example of artistically designed homes "for the not overly wealthy citizen". The "Blue House" and the "Wooden Gable House", were for sale after completion, the "Gray House" served as a servant apartment for the court preacher Hermann Count Keyserling, who established his "School of Wisdom" there.

The residential buildings, separated from each other on the inside and each with a separate entrance, were placed next to each other on the irregularly cut plot of land in such a way that they formed a whole from the outside, but were clearly distinguished from each other by the different originally designed gables.

The villa on the edge of the Mathildenhoehe was built in 1908 for Paul Ostermann, the director of the collection of the grand duchy, by Alfred Messel, the architect of the state museum. The classsical style of the villa bears no relation to the Art Nouveau of the neighbouring Artists‘ Colony. Today Ostermann House, also known as Alfred-Messel-House, is the home of "Hessen Design“.

The Vortex Garden with a villa on Mathildenhöhe is Darmstadt's only public park in private ownership.

Designed according to the principles of permaculture and the balance of natural eco-systems, the owner would like to make the garden accessible as a "place of vitality, renewal and recreation". On request, the design and the idea of the garden are explained to interested visitors.

From 9 am to 9 pm the garden is open for visitors free of charge.

The "Haus Martinus" (formerly "Haus Hubertus") was designed in 1921 by the architect Jan Hubert Pinand.

The Exhibition Hall on Mathildenhöhe, which opened in 1908 together with the Hochzeitsturm, is the venue for outstanding special exhibitions of international contemporary art as well as art and culture around 1900. The tension between contemporary presentations and cultural-historical positions of the turn of the century results in an extraordinary and vital programme in which utopias and a spirit of departure meet a striking sense of form and reality.

The Exhibition Hall remains closed due to general renovation.

The "Hochzeitsturm“ (Wedding Tower) and the Exhibition Hall (1907-1908) were the work of Joseph Maria Olbrich. Hidden under the hall is the fascinating vault of a walled water reservoir, a technical masterpiece.

The reservoir was built between 1877 and 1880 to the plans of the engineer Otto Lueger at the highest point of the Mathildenhoehe – and at the time fed the city’s water supply network.

Peter Behrehs, painter and craftsman, built with his first work an architectural monument. For the first exhibition of the Artists‘ Colony in 1901, he designed his own home with complete interior fittings – an example for the "Gesamtkunstwerk“ concept (complete work of art) propagated by the Jugendstil movement. The house was severely damaged in 1944, but its exterior was largely restored to the original design. Behrens, who was a member of the Artists‘ Colony from 1899 until 1903, is seen today as having paved the way for modern industrial construction.

House Habich was the residential home with studio of the Darmstadt sculptor Ludwig Habich, designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich for the exhibition in 1901. Destroyed in the war, it was re-built in 1951 in a somewhat simplified manner but in its original basic form.