dialect, having given way to the other shift that is customary in Hunsrückisch: rhotacism. Museums The Landesmuseum des Vereins für Heimatkunde im Landkreis Birkenfeld (“State Museum of the Association for Local History in the Rural District of Birkenfeld”) offers an overview of 2,500 years of cultural history. The centrepiece is the interactively equipped Celtic experience exhibit Kelten, Kunst und Kult erleben (“Experience Celts, Art and Worship”). Here, through reconstructions, archaeological finds and replicas, these people's life is presented. Further exhibits deal with regional and territorial history of the Birkenfelder Land. Historical highlights among these exhibits are the High Middle Ages (13th to 15th centuries) and Oldenburg times in the Principality of Birkenfeld beginning in the early 19th century. Regularly changing exhibits deal with both historical and current themes. Buildings The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments: Castle Birkenfeld, Burgstraße 17, 19, 28, 30, 32 (monumental zone) – preserved from the actual mediaeval castle a round tower stump; from the Renaissance complex the gatehouse (no. 17); former Gasthaus zum ledigen Waidsack (inn, no. 28); youth hostel, 1926, architect Wilhelm Heilig, Darmstadt (no. 19) Evangelical parish church, Am Kirchplatz 4/6 – Baroque aisleless church, five-sided quire, 1750-1756, architects Jonas Erikson Sundahl and Johann Seiz; Romanesque Revival west tower, 1895/1896, architect Heinrich Jester, Speyer; bells from 1554, 1717, 1961; décor Saint James’s Catholic Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Jacobus), Maiwiese 8 – Gothic Revival hall church, yellow sandstone, 1888-1890, architect Reinhold Wirtz, Trier; tomb slab 1752; décor Am Kirchplatz 2 – dwelling and commercial house, partly timber-frame, marked 1808, essentially older Am Kirchplatz 5 – Evangelical and Catholic public school; nine-axis Baroque Revival building with mansard roof, 1911; characterizes square’s appearance Am Kirchplatz 11 – dwelling and (former) commercial house; Renaissance Revival, 1881, characterizes square’s appearance Am Rech 2 – so-called Backhaus (“Bakehouse”); small house, partly timber-frame, partly slated, 18th or early 19th century An der Oelmühle 4 – former mill; quarrystone building, 1580; oilmill beginning in the 1770s, expansion and higher roof 1922; technical equipment Auf dem Römer 5 – building with half-hipped roof, partly timber-frame (with wooden shingles), marked 1723 Auf dem Römer 6 – Baroque house, 18th century, essentially possibly older (1665?); characterizes street's and town's appearance Auf dem Römer 9 – so-called Kußlersches Haus; corner house, marked 1590, partly with alterations from the 19th century; characterizes town's appearance Bahnhofstraße 2 – Late Historicist house,