Topping-out ceremony at the mother-of-pearl experience center in Adorf

The topping-out ceremony for the expansion of the "Perlmutter" adventure center in Adorf (Vogtlandkreis) was celebrated on Thursday. "This project only knows winners: tourists who experience something unique, a town that will be further revitalized and a story that can now be told," the Minister of State for Regional Development, Thomas Schmidt (CDU), was quoted as saying in a press release. The politician attended the topping-out ceremony at the invitation of Mayor Rico Schmidt (SPD). "We are already full of anticipation and are looking forward to the opening in the course of next year," said the mayor.

For 5.5 million euros, an experience center is to be built in Adorf in Vogtland, which will focus on the endangered river pearl mussel and its mother-of-pearl products - the shimmering material is obtained from the inner shell material of the mussels. The Adorf collection comprises several thousand exhibits, only 30 percent of which can currently be displayed in the cramped historical rooms in the town center. For this reason, the current mother-of-pearl and local history museum will be connected to a renovated outbuilding and a new building.

Until the 1920s, Adorf was a center for the production of mother-of-pearl goods - the name mother-of-pearl is also commonly used for the material, which is derived from "mother of pearl". Up to 1,000 people were employed at the time making jewelry, buttons and inlays from the shimmering shells. The small mountain streams around the town were considered an important distribution area for the river pearl mussel.