A visit to the local history museum in Bad Laer is always worthwhile.
"Where does the Bad Laerer Piepstein get its name from?" - This is just one of many exciting questions that can be answered in the local history museum.
In this case, the answer is: it owes its name to its characteristic structure! It is reminiscent of organ pipes lined up next to each other, so-called "peeps". Over thousands of years, minerals in the Bad Laerer brine were deposited on aquatic plants and reeds, where they encrusted to form sintered limestone. This is how the typical "Piepstein" was formed, in whose pipe-like structure you can still rediscover the old reed stems today.
Built from Piepstein itself as a vicarage in Art Nouveau style, the building at Kesselstraße 4 is ideally suited as a museum of local history. Even in front of the museum, you are greeted by a large, approximately 6000-year-old peep stone. If you want to find out more about this popular building material, which was quarried in Bad Laer until the last century and used to construct many beautiful buildings in the region, this is the place for you. But there are also numerous other reminders of times gone by. From wooden looms to classic everyday objects, you can marvel at many things that have almost completely disappeared from our lives today.
Visitors can also discover the history of the "Seidook". This particularly hard-wearing and robust rope for sailing ships is another of Bad Laer's historical flagships. It was sold as far afield as abroad. The name and trademark of Cordes, the linen merchant and hereditary coopers from Laer, can even be found in the account books of old trading houses in Amsterdam, Bremen and London. In the linen room of the museum, the path from flax to the finished "Seidook" comes to life thanks to an original loom from the 18th century.
As you continue to stroll through the museum's collections, one thing is particularly striking:
Everywhere there are seats that invite you to have a chat and underline the character of the museum of local history. Here, people not only look and listen, but also exchange ideas and engage in lively discussions.
There is plenty to talk about. After all, Bad Laer is a place with tradition and looks back on an eventful past that has always revolved around the 10,000-year-old, bubbling brine spring in Springmeyers Kolk rankt.
The local history museum also invites you to enjoy quiet moments, for example in the lovingly tended cottage garden that surrounds the art nouveau building. Lush flowerbeds surrounded by box hedges and traditional vegetables grown on site make it a real insider's tip in serene weather. On the reading benches, you can relax and enjoy a book you have brought with you, for example a copy from the nearby bookcase on Paulbrink. Here, everyone is welcome to browse, swap or give away their own books.
The collection focuses on:
the history of emigration, the linen trade, the textile collection, equipment for fiber production, spinning and weaving, blueprinting, geology, the collection of peepstones, old tools, rural housekeeping and rural living, equipment for various rural industries.
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