Has anyone ever shown you what the cellarium of a lay refectory is? Or what to imagine an arcade house to be? Perhaps you would also like to see on an excavation field how one can read off something about the city development from old wall remains? Or would you like to find out what committed citizens are doing to save an old water tower?
The nationwide Open Monument Day has many answers to questions like these. When every year on the second Sunday in September historical buildings and sites that are otherwise not or only partially accessible open their doors, millions of architecture and history lovers are invited on forays into the past. "History to touch", that offers the visitor the monument day thereby in probably singular way.
In expert guidance monument preservationists report on concrete examples on the tasks and activities of the monument preservation. Archaeologists, restorers and craftsmen demonstrate working methods and techniques and draw attention to details that remain hidden from an untrained eye.
The aim of the Open Monument Day is to raise public awareness of the importance of cultural heritage and to arouse interest in the concerns of monument conservation. In 2006, the German Foundation for Monument Protection was awarded the Open Monument Day campaign as the "Place of the Day" of the Germany - Land of Ideas campaign.
Text source and further information on the event: http://tag-des-offenen-denkmals.de/info/
http://tag-des-offenen-denkmals.de/laender/he/kreisfrei/9732/
