Museum St. Arnual

Museum St. Arnual stands in a 16th-century timber-framed house near the collegiate church of St. Arnual in Saarbrücken. The building once housed canons until the Stift was dissolved in 1569. Two original ceiling beams from that period still carry the roof today. Later it became the steward’s farmyard for the Stift’s estates and was remodelled in the early 18th century. Dendrochronology dates the roof timbers to 1729 and 1730. The museum was founded in 1998 by a local group led by craftsman and painter Fritz Meyer. It serves as both a local history museum and a neighbourhood meeting place. Changing art exhibitions are held alongside displays of everyday objects and documents. The collection includes drawings by Frédéric Back, twice an Oscar winner, who was born in St. Arnual. Works by the town’s painter Hein Bender are also shown. Outside, Fritz-Meyer-Platz features a Madonna statue by Saarland sculptor Erwin Guth. Inside, visitors find household tools, historic photographs, land registers and newspaper clippings. The old clock mechanism from the collegiate church is kept here, along with records of the vanished St. Arnual airfield that once stood nearby. The museum is run by the Heimatverein St. Arnual, a volunteer group honoured with the 2006 cultural prize of the former Saarbrücken district association.