Basket-Making Museum

The Korbmarkt Museum (Basket Market Museum) in the town centre documents Lichtenfels's identity as Germany's basket-weaving capital. The collection covers everything from traditional willow baskets to modern design pieces, tracing how a peasant cottage industry became a recognised craft with its own dedicated school.

The basket-weaving college attached to the museum still trains students, and the town's street signs and decorations reflect this unusual speciality. The market square on market days sometimes has basket-sellers setting up beside the regular produce stalls, a continuation of a trade that has gone on here for centuries. The museum is small but specific in the best way — it knows exactly what it is about.

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A story
Lichtenfels has been called the basket-making capital of Germany since at least the 18th century, when the craft spread through the Upper Franconian villages as a winter supplement to farming income. At its peak in the early 20th century, several hundred basket-weaving workshops operated in the district. The town's basket-weaving college, the only specialist institution of its kind in Germany, still trains students from across the country. The museum holds the largest collection of wicker and willow work in Europe.