Sieblos-Museum

The Sieblos Museum sits below ground level in Poppenhausen town hall, beneath the slopes of the Wasserkuppe. It is a small palaeontology and geology museum dedicated to the fossils found in the abandoned lignite mine at nearby Sieblos. In 1993 the collector Hugo Schubert donated part of his 1980s collection to the village, and the museum opened two years later. The displays begin in a recreated mine drift that explains the local mining past. Visitors then learn how the Sieblos layers formed and how scientists date them. Beyond the drift they see a spoil heap and a laboratory scene, followed by a room of fossils in glass cases. The site preserves plants and animals from a thirty-five-million-year-old freshwater lake, including ferns, flowering plants, insects, water slaters, fish, frogs, snails, birds, crocodiles and mammals. Beyond the main hall the museum shows more fossils and labels each piece with its species and age. The surroundings include the quiet streets of Poppenhausen and the wooded paths up the Wasserkuppe. The building itself is an old town hall, so visitors can step outside to see the village green and church tower after their visit.