Museum of Icons

Ikonenmuseum is a museum of icons and liturgical equipment related to the rite of the Orthodox church. The collection consists of over 1,000 objects - icons, crosses and manuscripts from the 16th to the 19th century. The most valuable icons include "Annunciation" by Emmanuel Tzanes (1610-1690) and "Descent from the Cross" by Angelo Bissamano.

The history of the museum began in 1988, when the retired doctor Jörgen Schmidt-Voigt (1917-2004) gave the city 800 icons from a private collection. Schmidt-Voigt was a highly valued cardiologist who treated the highest dignitaries of the former Soviet Union, among others Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov. In gratitude, he was presented with valuable gifts, including many icons.

Opened in 1990, Ikonenmuseum is one of the most important institutions of this type in Western Europe. Not only exhibitions are organized here, but also concerts of church music and iconographic workshops.