On the way to reopening: artistically designed walls and restored floors in the castle museum

The Stiftsberg will reopen on 28 March 2026 – and until then, work will continue at full speed. In addition to construction work and the ongoing furnishing of the redesigned exhibition rooms, wall printing with the wallPen and the restoration of the historic floors in the Blue Hall and the waiting room are currently underway. Both are examples of the interplay between modern technology, artistic design and traditional restoration, which will give visitors new insights into the history of the World Heritage city of Quedlinburg.

During the current construction phase, many things have to be coordinated simultaneously, explains Uta Siebrecht, director of Quedlinburg's municipal museums and archives. While construction is still underway in some parts of the building complex, furniture is already being delivered to other areas – and at the same time, selected walls in the exhibition rooms are being designed. This simultaneity is necessary in order to keep to the tight schedule leading up to the reopening.

The wall design follows a poetic idea that deliberately takes a back seat. ‘Just as elves and fairies have left their mark, so too have the abbesses,’ says Uta Siebrecht. ‘Not every single woman can have her own display in the museum,’ she adds. Nevertheless, their names should be visible. A total of 220 women whose work in the convent is documented are therefore discreetly printed on the walls in chronological order. Mathilde marks the beginning of the so-called ‘fairy trail,’ which runs through selected areas of the exhibition rooms on the upper floor and through the gallery in front of the former residential rooms. The names are not arranged in a list, but are integrated into the wall like a quiet, almost fleeting trail and are revealed more casually than through conscious reading.

What later appears so discreet in the room is based on high-precision technology. The wallPen is used, a special vertical printer that prints directly onto walls – even on uneven, historic surfaces. The ink is ‘shot’ onto the wall in milliseconds and hardens immediately during the printing process using UV light. ‘We guarantee a durability of twelve years – but the colour will probably last for 100 years,’ says Valentin Herfel, Head of Marketing at wallPen GmbH.

In addition to women's names, the technique can also be used to create graphic representations. One notable example is the image of King Henry I, which is displayed on the wall in extreme magnification – around 2.20 metres high. The motif is based on a 17th-century thaler coin measuring only about five centimetres in diameter, on which Henry is depicted as emperor and founder of the city and monastery. The exhibition will display corresponding original gold and silver talers in front of the wall presentation, where they will interact with the graphic.

At the same time, restoration work is progressing on the historic floors, which could only begin once work in the Jägergarten had been completed. In the Blue Hall and the waiting room, the wooden floors, which had long been protected by coverings, were uncovered and examined in detail. Parts of the floors can be dated to around 1720/1730. A detailed damage analysis is currently being carried out, which includes recording loose wooden parts, joints and previous repairs. The aim is to secure the floors structurally, reinforce or re-glue individual elements and then carefully treat the surfaces in a complex manual process. The restoration is based on the identical floor in the waiting room, which was repaired in previous years. Specialised wood restorers from several countries are involved in the work.

Step by step, a castle museum is being created that preserves historical substance while also breaking new ground in terms of communication – and will make the Stiftsberg accessible to the public again from spring 2026.