Shimmering jewelry, buttons made from mussel shells and water features: An adventure center is set to open in Adorf this year, where everything will revolve around the freshwater pearl mussel, its habitat and the former processing of mussel shell mother-of-pearl in the Vogtland region. Guests will then be able to "literally immerse themselves in the topic" in the three-storey building, says Mayor Rico Schmidt (non-party).
To this end, the almost 250-year-old half-timbered building of the former Perlmutter Museum has been combined with a modern new building. The mayor currently estimates the total costs at 5.9 million euros. More than half of this will come from subsidies. In the cramped rooms of the previous building, the Adorf mother-of-pearl exhibition with several hundred exhibits had long since reached its capacity limits, explains museum director Steffen Dietz.
In the past, the small town with currently around 4,700 inhabitants was a center for the production of mother-of-pearl goods in Germany with up to 1,000 employees. "The shimmering inside of shells was processed into everyday objects and accessories in factories and at home," says Dietz. A large selection of buttons, caskets and large mantel clocks will now form part of the new exhibition. The terms mother-of-pearl and mother-of-pearl are often used interchangeably.
