Autumn Festival at the Franconian Open-Air Museum Bad Windsheim

Harvesting like in Grandma's Time

The Autumn Festival is one of the most popular events at the Franconian Open-Air Museum Bad Windsheim, one of Southern Germany's largest open-air museums. On a weekend in September, the agricultural harvest work of past centuries comes to life: work is done on fields and in farmyards as it was done before, using historical equipment and traditional manual labor.

Autumn Tasks to Experience

The focus is on the typical tasks of the harvest season:

• Apple juice is freshly pressed
• Potatoes are steamed
• Fruit is dried and grain is ground
• the historic oil mill is in operation
• fresh bread and baked goods come from the historic ovens

Around 1 p.m. on both festival days, a harvest parade moves across the museum grounds, after which harvest work continues in the fields and farmyards.

Crafts and Beekeeping

In the workshops, craftsmen demonstrate historical techniques. Weaving is demonstrated at the Köblerhaus, and the museum beekeeper provides insights into beekeeping – from frame construction to the historic log hive.

The Franconian Open-Air Museum

The open-air museum on Eisweiherweg in Bad Windsheim, in the district of Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim, displays relocated historical buildings from all over Franconia on a vast site. The Autumn Festival makes the museum collection tangible and vividly conveys how deeply the harvest tradition is rooted in the Franconian cultural landscape.