50 Museums to Blow Your Mind

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• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781760340605
• eBook ISBN: 9781760341824
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Museum Studies

Thank the stars for the world's eccentric collectors; hoarders of objects beautiful, strange or downright odd. It is these documentors of the great and trivial - who want to show us all something wonderful about their collections and share the insights into humankind each of them illuminates - who have created the most fascinating, wonderful and precious museums the planet has to offer. Boggle at the enormity of space, get nostalgic at childhood memories or be dumbstruck by the International Museum of Toilets... Whether you're a history buff, tech-head or have an inexplicable fascination with clowns, you'll find world-class collections here to pique your interest. Never drag your heels around a dull museum again! Then & now // History museums Acropolis Museum // Greece British Museum // UK Forbidden City // China Goethe House & Goethe Museum // Germany Imperial War Museum // UK Museum of Alchemists & Magicians of Old Prague // Czech Republic Museum of Mummies of Guanajuato // Mexico National Museum of Anthropology // Mexico Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret // UK Prison Gate Museum // The Netherlands Sir John Soane's Museum // UK Styrian Armoury // Austria Torture Museum // The Netherlands Vasa Museum // Sweden Viking Ship Museum // Norway Whitney Plantation // USA The world around us // Natural history museums Kunstkamera // Russia 6 Messner Mountain Museum // Italy Sarawak State Museum // Malaysia Smithsonian Institution // USA Human creativity // Art & culture museums American Classic Arcade Museum // USA Belgian Brewers Museum // Belgium Burlesque Hall of Fame // USA Coffee Museum // Brazil Erawan Museum // Thailand Ghibli Museum // Japan Grammy Museum // USA The Green Vault // Germany Museum of Childhood // UK Musical Instruments Museum // USA Soumaya Museum // Mexico Vodka Museum // Russia Things that go // Science & technology museums Bicycle Museum of America // USA Big Hole & Open Mine Museum // South Africa Exploratorium // USA National Maritime Museum // France National Rail Museum // UK New Mexico Museum of Space History // USA New York City Fire Museum // USA Pencil Museum // UK Porsche Museum // Germany Sewer Museum // France Sulabh International Museum of Toilets // India Peculiar passions // Quirky museums Avanos Hair Museum // Turkey Clown Hall of Fame & Research Centre // USA Cupnoodles Museum // Japan Gopher Hole Museum // Canada International Cryptozoology Museum // USA Museum of Broken Relationships // Croatia Watermelon Museum // China About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.

Then & now // History museums

Acropolis Museum / Greece

15 DIONYSIOU AREOPAGITOU ST,
MAKRYGIANNI, ATHENS, GREECE
WWW.THEACROPOLISMUSEUM.GR

SO HOW’S THIS NEW ACROPOLIS MUSEUM WORKING OUT?

Funny you should ask; extremely well. This hyper-modern, in situ museum is more than ten times the size of its predecessor and intertwines spectacular architecture with the display of surviving gems from the Acropolis.

ALL OF THE GEMS?

Controversially, the ‘Parthenon Marbles’, aka the ‘Elgin Marbles’, are still housed in the British Museum, so the display at the Acropolis contains a pointed gap where the marbles belong. And there are many other Parthenon marble artefacts scattered around the world, so be prepared for a few holes in the collection.

SO IF WE WON’T SEE THE FULL ASSORTMENT OF PARTHENON TREASURES, WHAT WILL WE SEE?

Among the triumphs of the museum’s design are the glass walkways and floor-to-ceiling glass walls which allow visitors to walk right over the top of Acropolis ruins and look out on the slopes of the Acropolis, seeing 2000 years of history in its original context. Most of the collection is from the 5th century BC, though there are items from the Archaic and Roman periods as well.

SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG PHOTO © ALAMY

British Museum / UK

GREAT RUSSELL ST, BLOOMSBURY,
LONDON, UK
WWW.BRITISHMUSEUM.ORG

EVERY MAJOR CITY HAS THEIR OWN MUSEUM. WHY IS THIS ONE SO SPECIAL?

Hold on to your hat – this world-class, truly remarkable museum was opened in 1753 and houses a collection which spans more than two million years of human history, with show-stoppers like the Rosetta Stone, the world’s largest collection of Egyptian mummies, a 36m-long Viking warship, and an actual Easter Island statue, to name just a few.

THAT SHOULD KILL AN HOUR OR TWO.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. The museum has about eight million works on display. Yes, people, eight million.

HOW DO I EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN?

The museum is laid out in exhibitions on culture, people, place and/or material. Tip: the Greeks and Romans feature heavily and you won’t want to miss the Parthenon Sculptures. Otherwise known as the Elgin Marbles, these sculptures are part of the original Parthenon and Acropolis in Greece. If you’re still unsure of how to proceed, the museum provides itineraries with highlights for those with an hour or three hours to spare; that should help narrow it down.

I’M THERE. ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD KNOW?

Oh, yeah – we forgot to mention, it’s all totally free!

CHRIS DORNEY © SHUTTERSTOCK, ARCHITECT: NORMAN FOSTER

Forbidden City / China

4 JING SHAN QIAN JIE,
DONGCHENG, BEIJING, CHINA
WWW.DPM.ORG.CN

THE FAMOUS FORBIDDEN CITY, FORBIDDEN NO LONGER?

For more than 500 years the world’s largest palace complex was the exclusive haunt of royal dynasties, but after a Republican coup overthrew the last Qing Emperor the complex was open to all.

SO WE CAN WALK IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ROYALTY?

It’s like stepping back in time. Crossing the 52m-wide moat that rings the complex takes you into the centre of the best-preserved ancient buildings in all of China.

WHERE DOES THE MUSEUM PART COME IN?

The buildings in the Forbidden City are collectively known as the Palace Museum and treasures and ancient royal artefacts are scattered through hundreds of rooms and galleries.

HOW DO WE APPROACH SUCH AN ENORMOUS SIGHTSEEING CHALLENGE?

See the City as divided into an outer and an inner court. Each is comprised of buildings with grandiose names like ‘The Palace of Earthly Tranquillity’. Our tip for making the most of your time: wander unhurriedly through the endless halls and corridors and soak up the history at your own pace.

HUOGUANGLIANG © GETTY IMAGES

Goethe House & Goethe Museum / Germany

GROßER HIRSCHGRABEN 23-25, 60311
FRANKFURT, GERMANY
WWW.GOETHEHAUS-FRANKFURT.DE

HIGHBROW!

Yeah, this is all about the time and place of a true renaissance man. Goethe House was the home where writer, statesman and all-round polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe grew up. It’s an early 17th-century building – two in fact, combined into one by Goethe’s father (who would also be Goethe, but let’s call him ‘dad’ for the moment)…

… ‘DAD’ MAKES IT ALL SEEM A LITTLE… LOWBROW.

You won’t think so when you see the fully-decked out baroque masterpiece in all its glory. It also has the writing desk used to pen Goethe Jnr’s early works. Goethe Museum, next door, adds to the atmosphere with artworks from this period of his life as well as pieces inspired by his writing.

IT’S DEFINITELY A REFINED KIND OF EXPERIENCE, THEN.

There’s probably not going to be many laughs, but this memorial links you back to a seriously impressive life. He wrote poetry, novels, scientific papers, plays, criticism … he was famous even as a young man. Then he got busy as a statesman and scientist. A visit here and you’ll probably wonder what you’ve been doing with your life.

H & D ZIELSKE © GETTY IMAGES

Imperial War Museum / UK

LAMBETH RD, SOUTHWARK,
LONDON, UK
WWW.IWM.ORG.UK

IT SOUNDS LIKE WE MIGHT LEARN SOMETHING HERE.

Among all the mind-bogglingly quirky museums in this book we have managed to include a few places that are of genuine historical significance as well as being remarkable and revealing. The Imperial War Museum is such a place.

WHAT’S IN STORE?

The museum has five separate localities all displaying warfare artefacts from British involvement in modern conflict. The main and most impressive location is housed at Lambeth Rd, where the large, central atrium hosts a Supermarine Spitfire suspended from the ceiling, displays of actual V1 and V2 rockets, and a Land Rover that was hit under a rocket attack in Gaza in 2006. Other extraordinary items include an Enigma code machine, the original note conveyed to the fron...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Then & now // History museums
• The world around us // Natural history museums
• Human creativity // Art & culture museums
• Things that go // Science & technology museums
• Peculiar passions // Quirky museums
• About the authors
• Acknowledgements
• Back Cover