Bellum & Artes - Europe and the Thirty Years’ War

Four hundred years after the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War, twelve museums and research institutions from Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland, Italy, Spain and Belgium have come together to examine the war’s impact on the arts through a transnational lens. The House of European History exhibition is a showcase of the Bellum & Artes project extending over a number of years. All partner institutions are located in regions that were affected by the Thirty Years’ War and all are represented in the exhibition by a special object or thematic focus. They are united in their aim to raise awareness of their shared cultural heritage through intensive co-operation in research and museum work.

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The exhibition catalogue contains the following sections:

• Forewords
• Essays
• Do the muses grow silent in wartime?
• Europe – a powder keg
• The war’s participants and the role of the arts
• How did the war work?
• The horrors of war
• War in the media
• Art and artists during the war
• The road to peace
• Europe after 1648: war...
• .... And peace