Model of the Imperial City of Nuremberg

(Copy by Sigmund Pfreundtner and Alfred Baumann, 1941/42) Linden wood, partially colored. The model of the free and imperial city of Nuremberg made by painter-woodcarver Hans Baier in 1540 is considered the oldest urban model from anywhere in German-speaking Europe. The exhibit in the Fembohaus is only a copy; the original is in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich. On an area measuring just 58 x 68 cm (23 x 27 inches), the model contains a complete reproduction of mid-sixteenth-century Nuremberg. You can get a three-dimensional impression of the city's size and imposing defense installations. The city gates, the detailed castle in the north of town, the city's mighty churches and the Pegnitz with its many bridges, cutting the city into two almost equal-sized parts – the model shows all of Nuremberg's most important landmarks.