The Battle of Varus (also known as the Battle of Teutoburg Forest) was made famous by the Ridley Scott film "Gladiator" - The opening battle where Russel Crowe fights in Germany (Germanicus), the site is near the town of Kalkriese in Germany and according to the website blub is "Recognised as one of the most important archaeological sites in Europe - BIG claim, so the NMBS went to find out.
Now, I am trying my hardest to make the NMBS website as professional as I can. However trying to find something positive to say about the Varus site is hard. Varus does not know what it wants to be. Its a museum, a country park, a kiddie play area, an observation tower, a scrap metal site, a wacky place. One thing it is not - is any good.
I am sorry the owners of Varus, I am sure you had great ideas, but if you claim to be so important give the punters what they want - THINGS TO SEE ! I only took a few pictures of the content of Varus Museum, as frankly there was not much in there. Coins, Sling-shot pellets, few bits and bobs. Frankly, the Bolton Library Museum has more Roman artifacts on display that Varus. And Bolton does not charge 7 Euros to get in. I am not big fan of museums having mannaquins dressed as Nero or Hitler, Churchill or Cladius but at least you get to see costume and a sense of what the period was like. Varus was crying out for a guy in a toga or a Horse pulling some chariot. Or even a film show with headsets for non German speakers - there was nothing. Even the smallest and most hard to find battlefield the NMBS has visited - Killiecrankie, the National Trust for Scotland has a visitors centre, albeit small, so people can understand what went on.
The history lesson written on boards around the Varus museum is enough to drive the non German visitor mad - the start of the tour these information boards are in English and German by the end they are in German alone ! Why stop ?!? To make matters worse the information on these boards was in red lettering on a black background. This made it hard to read. Okay this may sound like an Englishman abroad gripe - it isn't, for one reason only Varus was discovered by an English Archaeologist.
At the side of the museum was a tall observation tower (see pic below) so you could see the battlefield. As we walked around this battlefield there was huge metal slabs with (In German) writing telling you what happened on this spot. We had no idea and the metal just looked like a scrap site.
Well - I will let the NMBS web-visitor decide with the pictures below. Anyone who has visited Varus and liked it, please, I would be interested, let me know.
