Opened in 1990, the Icon Museum of Frankfurt am Main occupies the eastern periphery of the Museum Riverbank, housed in the former monastery Deutschordenshaus. The newly designed interior of the Museum is the brainchild of Oswald Mathias Ungers. Based on the quadratic form, his reconstruction concept stands in tension-charged contrast to the building's baroque facade.
The Museum came into being thanks to a donation by the Königstein physician Dr. Jörgen Schmidt-Voigt, who in 1988 gave 800 icons to the City of Frankfurt. Stemming from the period between the 16th and 19th centuries, the collection has gradually been extended to more than 1000 exhibits by systematic purchases, loans and gifts.
The Museum benefited from a significant enrichment in the year 1999, when 82 exhibits were received as permanent loan from the State Museums of Berlin, Sculpture Collection and Museum for Byzantine Art.
In addition to icons painted on wood, which form a keynote of the collection, the Museum's collection today also includes metal sculptures such as portable icons, benediction crosses, pectoral crosses, church utensils, as well as ecclesiastical materials and Ethiopian magic scrolls. Of particular value is a series of signed and dated icons, for example by Angelo Bissamano, Emmanuel Tzanes and Michailo Miljutin. The Museum also exhibits work by modern artists with an association to icon painting.
Municipal museum of the City of Frankfurt
Free admission for children and young persons under 18