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Museum im Eiskeller
Museum im Eiskeller
Am Schindwasen 6
35444 Biebertal-Rodheim
May to October:
Saturdays, 12 - 6 pm
Sundays and Holidays, 2 – 6 pm
Guided tours can be booked (also on weekdays) at https://www.gailscherpark.de/wissenswertes/fuehrungen/
The museum is located on the pond behind a porch with a birch wood front. At the end of the 19th century, the Gail family had built an ice cellar here for their home economics. This allowed them not only to keep food fresh longer, but also to offer their guests cool drinks and sorbet ice cream. The ice cellar was used until the 1930s and is still preserved in its original form.
There is no other comparable museum known in the wider area, which focuses on the economic branches of ice harvesting, ice storage and ice trade, which were important in the past all over the world, before the invention of the ice machine.
The large interior space illustrates the importance that ice cellars played in people's everyday lives over the past centuries. The aim is to show today's generation what life was like without refrigerators and freezers.
The past craft of ice production as well as the ice trade are presented by means of large explanatory panels. Especially the economic dimension of the ice industry from antiquity until today is hardly known. Anecdotes provide information about the enormous luxury that ice (and snow!) used to mean in summer, even for the rich. The history of the development of ice cream in Europe is also reported.
Original exhibits such as ice saws, ice tongs and rafters' hooks give an impression of the labor-intensive craft. All this is shown at an original location.