The people of iphofen and the tourists alike were amazed when the market square was recently closed and industrious craftsmen began to build a three-by-seven-meter platform opposite the knauf museum and also placed an oversized "wooden box" at the edge of the square. In the end, there was a trojan horse in the middle of iphofen – as a spectacular advertisement for the new special exhibition at the knauf museum, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Birthday.
Since the pyre reconstruction for the witch craze exhibition and the dugout canoe trip on the river main for the exhibition "early main history", museum director markus mergenthaler is known for spectacular actions, but with a sound scientific background.
Visual stimulus before the exhibition
What would homer’s epic of the trojan war, with which generations of schoolchildren have been familiarized, be without the trojan horse?! That’s what mergenthaler thought in the run-up to the special exhibition "heinrich schliemann troja," which will be on display from 15. June in the knauf museum shows exhibits from the berlin troja collection and thematizes the person heinrich schliemann.
With the company bohm bau from markt einersheim, the knauf museum found the right partner for the construction of a trojan horse. The designs were made by the wurzburg artist vladimir petrichev, who has been active in many museum exhibitions, and by the museum director mergenthaler.
Oversized rocking horse
When the podium was in place and the horse was brought to the marketplace on a two-axle hanger, it looked like a rough rocking horse. But not for long. Because when gerald koos had the wooden horse on his crane hook and pulled up, the legs folded down and an imposing six-meter high horse came to light.
Koos had around 1.8 tons of spruce and fir wood on the hook. The bohm craftsmen routinely tapped in the missing bolts and stabilized the horse’s legs on the rump. Lowered onto the platform, the legs were then bolted together. Last came the tail of the horse.
When the horse was standing, the craftsmen tom weber, kevin steet, werner tschechne and thomas appel, together with markus mergenthaler, celebrated the topping out ceremony, so to speak, on the horse’s back.
Selfies with the wooden horse
And the oversized wooden box? The turned out to be a platform for selfies with the wooden horse, which was eagerly used after the installation. Even during the campaign, passers-by were taking pictures or filming.
The ancient history
The greek poet and historian homer reports that after an almost ten-year-long, unsuccessful battle of the greeks against the trojans, they succeeded with a cunning to overcome the walls of troja and to capture the city.
The greeks built a rough wooden horse, inside of which there were soldiers. The greek army exchanged the trigger before.
The trojans pulled the wooden horse into town. There, in the night, the greeks got off the horse and opened the city gates through which the returning greek army entered.
Also in the replica on the iphofen marketplace some people were fit, but iphofen’s gates are all open anyway. Whether there really was once a trojan horse is something that even the special exhibition "heinrich schliemann troja" cannot clarify. At least the ross in iphofen is real and will remain with a short weinfest interruption until the end of the exhibition on the 4. November to see.