The Lower Saxon state museum sits at the southern end of the Maschpark, opposite the New Town Hall. The collection has four parts under one roof: a fine-art gallery of European painting from Cranach to Beckmann, a strong archaeology department centred on the bog people of the region, an ethnographic collection from across the colonial-era Pacific and Africa, and a natural-history department with live aquariums of native fish.
Allow at least half a day. The cafe in the lobby is a good place to break the tour, and the museum's old-fashioned period rooms are a small pleasure that most modernised museums have done away with.