Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum

A small but not-to-be-missed collection of mostly German art, from the northern renaissance to the 20th century. The building itself is a former town house lavishly decorated and beautifully preserved. The extensions to the museum house the modern art collection.

Pretty good museum, the building is also nice. the second floor is closed for renovations and you cannot see the art after the 1700’s. Don’t forget to check for student discounts. Staff were friendly and helpful too.

Ive been to many of these kinds of museums-the type that are housed in a mansion, they have a nice collection, usually spanning medieval art until the 20th Century (this museum spans a broader collection it must be said) but these types of museums usually don't have so many instantly recognisable names- there are normally no Rembrandts or Picassos and any guests without an art historical background can sometimes remain underwhelmed by this type of collection. But. What this museum does so well is lean into what is really interesting about their collection. The weird, the gossipy, the mysteries surrounding the objects that they have. Religious icons with moving body parts, tiny coffins with remains to carry in your pocket, artworks that were recycled from other artworks, incorrect claims written on the back of paintings, and of course, lots of beautiful pieces if you prefer conventionally lovely art. The standard of curation is excellent, it makes the collection very accessible for a wide range of people by drawing out what is special and interesting about it. If you are interested in the interior of mansions like me, I was super impressed by the building itself. It's beautifully restored with lovely decorative and colour choices. The staff were also very engaged and informative, something that usually reflects well on the management. For me it was also the perfect size, a leisurely 2 hour visit, more or less very comfortably depending on your schedule.

Aachen is a quite small city with limited things to do. And especially on sundays there is nothing to do since most of the cafes, shops, stores, supermarkets and services are closed. So we decided to visit this museum to kill some time. No one inside has hospitality or smiling faces. We didn’t mind their attitude but they kept bothering us. An officer warned my father that his hat can fly. He was just holding it in his hands. Then he put hat to his head. After this strange warning same guy approached us second time to ask us whether we have any questions. And then he couldn’t answer some random questions about the paintings due to his weak English. He came to us third time to insist showing a random piece of art. I don’t understand this behaviour but never experienced such bizarre conversations in any other museum in different cities. Maybe it is because we were two Turkish tourists in a German city. Apart from the attitude the museum doesn’t have a lot to offer. It has pretty generic items at first floor. Unfortunately I don’t have anything positive to say about here

Great collection, not too big or small. They show it based on theme rather than time (although it is grouped by each 500 year period) which is a great fit for the size of the collection. I speak fluent German, but the guards are really not very nice. We were a bit on the later side of the day, but they kept asking if we knew they closed at 5. Of course we did, the person selling the ticket told us ! 😂 To be fair, the tickets were reduced in price (3 rather than 6 euros) due to some art pieces missing, which was nice.

Surprizingly large collection. Takes 2hours plus to see them all. I wish they focus on info in English more.

The museum is not that big, the staff hardly speaks any language other that German. No shop opened, no café. One sit available per floor. Having to ask for the use of lift and they did it with a lack of grace.

Excellent gallery with focus on medieval/renaissance art brightened by contemporary artists.