SMAC

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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 jewellery found in the archaeology sections of history museums, which many visitors tend to overlook as they rush to admire treasures from later epochs. Here, the multimedia exhibition is organised as a journey through every cultural layer left by human civilisation, with each seemingly unprepossessing object allowed to tell its fascinating story.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Karl Marx Monument

0.15 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)…

2. Museum für Naturkunde

0.23 MILES

Chemnitz Natural History Museum's most interesting exhibit, the Versteinerter Wald (petrified forest), can be admired for free in the atrium; some of the…

3. Neue Sächsische Galerie

0.23 MILES

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

4. DAStietz

0.23 MILES

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

5. Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz

0.26 MILES

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

6. Museum Gunzenhauser

0.56 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…

7. Schlossbergmuseum

0.88 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

0.97 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…