Hans Heysen - The Cedars — Attraction in Verdun

A lovely garden and an interesting Art Studio. The house itself; while somewhat interesting and full of history, does require restoration - something that can be achieved without compromising the historical integrity or aesthetic of the property - and given the entry fee amount and presence of volunteering staff (as indicated by management in responses to other reviews): a restoration should be easily attainable.

Given the entry price for a guided tour of the house, for some, it may not be quite worth it. The verbal content delivered by the guide was heavily oriented toward the historical visitors to the house, the history of the artist and his family, and if you're lucky enough - an abridged autobiography of the guides' personal family history and loose ties to the area (something that strangely enough, was not mentioned in the tour breakdown featured in the store). Funnily enough to, you may also be treated to their "sudden" realisation that "you arent here to hear about [them]", despite it being blindingly obvious to anyone with atleast one functioning sense, that they were spouting the same, orchestrated routine with every tour that they deliver - hoping to invoke some scattered laughter, or scrape together a semblance of an engaged audience.

Additionally to this, prepare to be passively scolded for the duration of your visit, by specific tour guides if you even hint - in a private conversation with anyone else except the staff mind you - at breaking away to conduct a self-driven exploration of the property, after the tour of the house. To which specific guides may spontaneously insert themselves into your private conversation, and then act surprised and affronted when they learn of your highly offensive independence with regard to preferring a particular style of touring the property - despite offering an expected self-guided tour option to visitors. You may also be lucky enough to receive passive-aggressive insinuations implying that you "may not find them interesting" or approachable - which, ultimately was the case, and reinforced the desire for the self-guided tour in the first place.

The tour of the house itself, while somewhat interesting, felt rushed and highly micro-managed. It is understandable that managing a tourist location of historical significance requires care and a particular approach in ensuring the safety of integrity of artefacts within it. However given the impressive amount of visitors as eluded to by staff, paired with the high entry fee, this would indicate that there would be some scope to invest in cameras within the house, to monitor the safety of the artefacts while not pressuring the paying customers to race through the house at an unenjoyable rate.

Largely, the advice I have to those who possess the bravery - or simply a disregard for their personal safety - to visit this house, is to understand that most of the information you receive can be found online, along with images of the house and property. Additionally, keep in mind that when you're in the house you can't go upstairs, or in the kitchen, or be trusted to spend time in a room alone to really absorb the history.

For those who are curious and are keen to avoid general unpleasantness, the tourguide that we had was an older middle-aged woman, with glasses, a stern expression, unnaturally "hard" looking face and socially-insertive demeanour, riddled with condescension.

Hint: The painting of the flowers on the wall, above the "stage", took 3 days to...

I decided to come here partly on recommendations of others and partly because there is nothing much else to do in Hahndorf. You enter through the gift shop, which like many art gallery gift shops, is very nice, with lots of greeting cards and books et al. with works of art on the covers. The staff waiting at the admission till were informative, courteous, and helpful. The guided tour lasted 1 1/2 hours and the guide talked for the great majority of that. What she said was interesting and topical. Her talk included details about how the Heysens lived and how Hans and Nora learnt art. I loved their home. This experience at 'The Cedars' has actually made me interested in the Heysens' art. I liked the place and the tour more than I thought I would. The cafe is very pleasant to sit in (and my coffee was better than expected, also). Around the grounds on 'The Artist Walk' are placed stations where you can view the real-life scenes of well-know Heysen paintings, which have not changed much, and contain copies of the art work and snippets from the artist's letters. There were some temporary sculptures placed around the grounds, or should I say "sculptures" (although a few were good), but they won't be there for long and did at least add another element to the outside. I managed to spend a pleasant three hours at 'The Cedars'. In future, they will have more exhibits, so I may well return...

Our experience here was nothing short of frustrating and disappointing.

We booked here for our wedding photos and they failed to inform us that the car park was under maintenance, forcing our entire family including our elderly grandparents to park further down the street. This was a major inconvenience that could have easily been avoided with proper notice.

When we arrived they questioned why we were there and asked if we had a booking. This level of disorganization is completely unacceptable, especially for an event as significant as a wedding.

In the middle of our private vow reading, they rudely interrupted us to tell us when we needed to leave. This completely shattered the moment, and instead of quickly excusing themselves, they lingered and continued talking despite us making it clear we were in the middle of something incredibly personal.

To top it off, they reprimanded our bridal party for simply celebrating. Weddings are joyous occasions, and their unnecessary interference cast a shadow over what should have been a happy and carefree moment.

This venue demonstrated a complete lack of professionalism and respect for our special day. I would strongly advise anyone considering this place for an event to...