Place of worship with modern clay long house

The new information centre at the more than 4,000-year-old Neolithic earthworks enclosure at Pömmelte in Zackmünde, Germany combines history and modernity under one roof.

How did people live on the Elbe more than 4,000 years ago and what rituals did they observe? Visitors to Saxony-Anhalt, south of Magdeburg, will find answers to these questions. Discovered in 1991 and subsequently exposed, the circular relic in Pömmelte, similar to the famous Stonehenge in England, provides unusually detailed insights into the lives and beliefs of people at the end of the Neolithic period and start of the Bronze Age.

Thousands of wooden piles in the Neolithic earthworks enclosure

Unlike Stonehenge, however, the place of worship, where complex rituals and sacrificial acts were carried out in its time, consists of thousands of wooden piles arranged in a circle. The entire Neolithic earthworks enclosure has a diameter of around 115 metres and is a stop on the "Himmelswege" tourist route, together with the site where the Nebra sky disc was found, the Goseck Neolithic earthworks enclosure, the Langeneichstädt megalithic tomb and the State Museum of Prehistory Halle.

Rammed clay building on the floor plan of a long house

The information centre built on the outskirts of the place of worship in 2023 based on a planning draft by Sußmann + Sußmann Architekten und Ingenieure from Magdeburg, gives a good impression of the dimensions of an early Bronze Age long house, as it was built to scale as a nine-metre wide and 24.6-metre long clay construction on the floor plan of a prehistoric long house. This is the first new rammed clay building in Saxony-Anhalt since the 1950s.

State-of-the-art technology and feel-good atmosphere inside

Even on the inside of the simple flat-roof building with many windows and a generous covered foyer, the 130 tonnes of clay in total, built up layer by layer, are partly visible on the walls and create a pleasant natural and calming atmosphere.

Unlike the long houses built 4,000 years ago, the new building is naturally equipped with state-of-the-art technology in the form of several touch screens, modern sanitary facilities, a heat pump and ample space for lectures, concerts and museum educational events.

The Troldtekt acoustic panels in a warm grey-brown colour due to the FUTURECEM cement, in combination with the brown clay walls, underline the impression of early bronze-era buildings. White-painted walls, the light-coloured floor and predominantly white furniture, on the other hand, create a special link from the past to the present.