Museum für Naturkunde

Leipzig & Western Saxony


Chemnitz Natural History Museum's most interesting exhibit, the Versteinerter Wald (petrified forest), can be admired for free in the atrium; some of the stony trunks are 290 million years old.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Leipzig & Western Saxony attractions

1. Neue Sächsische Galerie

The renovated DAStietz building harbours the Neue Sächsische Galerie, which presents postwar works by Saxon artists.

2. DAStietz

Beautifully renovated, this former 1913 department store now houses the city library as well as the Neue Sächsische Galerie, which presents contemporary…

3. SMAC

0.23 MILES

Occupying a converted department store, this state-of-the-art museum is a brave attempt to celebrate all those crocks, bones and pieces of primitive…

4. Karl Marx Monument

0.35 MILES

Things have rather turned against the founder of Communism since this 7m-high bronze head (one that catches the German philosopher on a very bad hair day)…

5. Museum Gunzenhauser

0.38 MILES

A former 1930 bank building, built in austere New Objectivity style, is now a gallery of 20th-century art, most famous for its expressionist works by such…

6. Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz

0.48 MILES

Flanking Chemnitz' most beautiful square, the historic Theaterplatz, this lovely art museum stages large-scale temporary exhibits, sometimes drawn from…

7. Schlossbergmuseum

1.04 MILES

This late-Gothic monastery houses the city history museum, whose vaulted interior is a rich backdrop for Saxon 15th- and 16th-century sculpture.

8. Schlosskirche

1.1 MILES

This 12th-century Benedictine monastery has been recast into a weighty Gothic hall church and houses Hans Witten’s intriguing sculpture Christ at the…