The "Adler-Apotheke" in Aachen is considered one of the cradles of confectionery production in Germany. In 1857, a chocolatier produced the first chocolate bars in the building on the Hühnermarkt. A luxury at the time! Today, "Haus Monheim" is home to the Couven Museum, which provides an insight into the lifestyle of the upper middle classes from the Rococo period through the Napoleonic Empire style to the Biedermeier era.
A clover-shaped cast-iron "cooking machine", tiled walls and fine silver cutlery: the wealthy bourgeoisie have always liked to surround themselves with luxury. The Couven Museum in Aachen brings the lifestyle of the high nobility of past centuries back to life. In addition to a visit to the reconstructed "Adler Apothecary" with all kinds of mortars, scales and medicine jars from the 17th to 19th centuries, you can also see a precision pendulum stand. As well as a precision pendulum clock with a 24-hour display, the museum also gives visitors an insight into daily kitchen work in the 18th century and the prestigious silver cabinet. Fine silver service here bears witness to the appreciation of the new luxury drinks such as coffee, tea and chocolate, which until then were only served at court. Visitors enter the large banqueting hall through the double doors crowned with supraports. While large landscape paintings from the 18th century adorn the walls of the prestigious hall, the simple and functional furnishings in the Biedermeier room point to the bourgeoisie's lack of financial means between the Congress of Vienna (1815) and the March Revolution in 1848.
The house on Hühnermarkt in Aachen's historic city center has an eventful history. Built in 1662 by the pharmacist Adam Coebergh, Andreas Monheim had it redesigned a good century later by the architect Jakob Couven. After the Second World War, the city of Aachen bought it and opened the Couven Museum here in 1958. Alongside the cathedral and the city museum "Centre Charlemagne", the town hall, the Elisenbrunnen fountain and the Grashaus, it is now part of the Route Charlemagne. This connects important places in the center of Aachen where history and stories are told: big stories of Charlemagne, who once declared Aachen the center of his empire, and small stories such as that of the Italian chocolatier who once brought chocolate to Aachen.
