Wentzingerhaus (Museum of municipal history)
At the Wentzingerhaus, you can experience the life of an 18th-century artist up close.
With the construction of the Wentzinger House “Zum Schönen Eck” around 1761, the painter and sculptor created a monument to himself. Even today, a smiling bust of him looks out from the balcony above the building’s entrance, which has been perfectly preserved over the centuries. The façade is adorned with impressive masked heads that bear Wentzinger’s signature style and attest to his great skill.
Anyone who opens the heavy wooden door steps into the magnificent late-Baroque studio and living quarters of the Breisgau artist Johann Christian Wentzinger.
The elaborately designed stairwell, with its cast-iron spiral staircase spanning two floors and the artfully decorated gallery, is crowned by an allegorical ceiling painting of the building’s owner at the time.
Until March 2026, this magnificent setting also served as a journey through Freiburg’s history. However, the exhibits from the former Museum of City History—covering the city’s founding around 1120, the construction of the cathedral, the military conflicts of the 17th century, and up to modern times—are now housed in the Augustian museum.
