On the day of the International Museum, discover the most eccentric in Europe
You are tired Museum Classic style? Are you looking for something stranger and eccentric in your next urban holiday? In Europe there are large museums, but there are also very extravagant. From London The landfill of God to him Broken relationship museum from Zagreb, through the new and controversial Forbidden art museum From Barcelona, there are no excellent alternatives.
Amber Bryce, David Mourquand and Theo Farrant, publishers of “Euronews Culture”, share their selection of museums that may not have heard … but those who should give priority.
Museum of Witchcraft and Magic (Cornwall, United Kingdom)
The port of Boscastle is a picturesque paradise of posadas and ceramic shops, but among all this there is something even more adorable: a museum that contains damn dolls, dismembered hands and gallic stones. THE folk artifacts Exponed was collected by Cecil Williamson, a fascinating man who founded the Witchcraft Research Center in 1947 after being hired by Em6 to investigate the possible hidden influences of the Nazis. In 1960 he moved the witchcraft and the Magic Museum in his current position: “In this silent corner of England There is the strange feeling that we are not alone and that the shadows of the people who have gone to the spirits are very close. “
In fact, the Past ghosts They are always present when the crystal spheres, the divination mirrors and moon -shaped talismans, the relics of the human imagination that were trying to tend Bridges between the physical and spiritual world. There are also cats, Calderoni and Galli made with stones inside a box, together with other much darker objects, such as a rusty weight chair that has been used in the Witch judgments.
Is a Ghostly but strangely welcoming placefull of magic and morbidity. But if this is not quite stimulus to get on the broom and make a trip, there is also an excellent gift shop in which you can buy delicacies as a hand of glory in candle of wax (hand of glory), produced in its time with the hands of the team of the hanged. Of course, don’t think about the knitting dolls. Ab
Faloteca National de Icelandia (Reykavik, Icelandia)
The pocket rocket. Dallas’s hook. The Monster Tuerto. The Calvo Avenger. Silver long dong. The disco stick of Lady Gaga. There are countless ways of referring to a penis. Those who are unable to accept that the sexual organs are common – in addition to the milestone of most of the jokes – and prefer to remain anchored in their Mojigatería, must not request a voice for the National Falooteca of Icelanden reikavik.
This cultural family institution is the only museum in the world dedicated to Falos and proudly exhibits a Large collection of specimens of peni, from humans to mammals. Some are small. Others, rather mammoth.
He started as a personal collection of the founder, Sigurour Hjartarson, which the teaching staff gave a penis bull as a joke when he worked as a director. Sigurour went to work and, over 40 years, has expanded his vast collection. Each sample is accompanied by Detailed descriptions Contribute Scientific information and historical contextIn the event that I thought it is only a laughing penis. Once he was amazed by Pendrant Mirror Phallus, you can delight in the exhibitions that include whales, seals, reindeer, foxes and even information relating to elves and tritons for folklore lovers. Or simply out of curious about such things. Nobody judges.
Do what you do, do not go without going through the gift shop, which is brilliantly decorated and offers a wide range of unique memories, including educational books, for those who are not yet convinced that this is a Cultural excursion of good taste. By the way, do not forget to cross the Fallic Café & Bistro, which offers unique snacks, from the delicious delights of banana and caramel to the shapes of a penis covered with wild reindeer meat. You may want to accompany the latter with a phallic themed beer.
And if the “Schwing-shchwongs” are not theirs, you can always go to the picturesque fishing village of Bildudalur, in western fjords, to visit the Icelandic Museum of Marine Monsterswhich is also very funny. It is located in an old sand factory in the nineteenth century and we can guarantee that it does not focus too much on the genitals of mythical creatures. A pity. DM
Museum of the crab (Margate, United Kingdom)
In 1862, the fisherman of Margate Thomas Gaskell captured his life: a giant crab of two and a half meters. Instead of selling him, he brought him home, where he apparently cut the eels and showed a curious charm for human life. But peaceful coexistence did not last long …
What followed was a gloomy story of foolish foolish, itinerant shows of phenomena and the mysterious death of a drunk circus teacher. This Extraordinary history It is just one of many who are counted in the Margate Crab Museum, the first and only European museum dedicated to Decapod. Founded in 2021 by three twenty years friends, this Free and eccentric spaceLocated in an old cake factory, it makes the crab apparently humble a surprising entrance door to great ideas: Biodiversitycapitalism, colonialism, Climate changeRights of transgender people and much more.
ADVERTISINGInside they are exposed fun exhibitions On the Evolution of the crabStrange rituals of coupling crustaceans and global history of humans who eat, adore and mitigate the crabs. Among the most exceptional exhibitions there is the “Crabton-on-Tyne” diorama, a miniature Marxist melodrama with crabs with plates that participate in a crustacean class struggle in England in 1926, as well as the huge clamp that is said to belong to the legendary (and perhaps murderer) Maskell companion. It is strange, it is wonderful and it is worth visiting if the coastal city is ever visited. TF
Purgatory Soul Museum (Rome, Italy)
According to Catholicism, Purgatory is a state of limbo for souls while waiting to purify themselves before entering the sky. It is not exactly a pleasant, but disturbing experience for a museum. Although small, the Museum of purgatory souls It is abundant in disturbing vibrations. It was founded by a priest named Victor Jouët after a fire in a chapel in 1897, during which he claimed that he had seen a Chamuscado tortured face on the wall. Believing that it was the symbol of a soul that shouted from Purgatory, Jouët has tours the continent in search of multiple ultraTumba objects (everyone needs a hobby).
Its collection is kept in a room in front of the neo -Gothic of the sacred heart of suffrage and includes traces burned in fabrics, books and wooden tablets, together with a reproduced image of the original “suffering face” that started the Jouët mission. Although macabre, it is a hidden jewel For the curious spiritual that captures the disturbing atmosphere of the religious past of Rome. And sometimes this is all that is sought in a museum: a strange feeling or a fleeting vision of the eccentricity of its conservative. In addition, it is created or not in all this, seeing the imprint of a burnt hand in a Bible is disturbing; It may be necessary to purify the soul of visitors with ice cream. Ab
ADVERTISINGMuseum of Sex Machines (Prague, Czech Republic)
Prague It has magnificent galleries that celebrate rare and eccentric things. The Alchemy Museum, the Tunnel of the Books of the Municipal Library … and then it is the Museum of Sex Machines (SMM, for the acronym of the “Museum of Sexual Machines”). Founded in 2002 and located in the heart of the precious old city, this single three -story attraction is the The only world sex museum dedicated exclusively to sexual machines.
The official web portal of the Museum of Sex Machines describes itself as “a Exhibition of mechanical erotic deviceswhose purpose is to provide pleasure and allow extraordinary and unusual positions during the relationship. “In fact, the SMM shows a wide range of historical and contemporary devices related to human sexuality, always with an educational touch to offer a deeper vision of the evolution of sexual aid in times, as well as the various perceptions of sexuality in different cultures. Accompanied by flexible mannequins, in the event that your virginal mind cannot understand the mechanics of some machines and their … applications.
From the bodies and body fingers of the sixteenth century to the “copulation tables” and to the antimasturbation devices of the 1920s, through the dildo and the modern vibrator, it is a fairly revealing experience. But it is far from being effective, since it shows how far humanity has always been incredibly (sometimes frightening) Creative As for sex, something that cannot be seen only in the various devices on display, but also in the art gallery and in the small theater that projects some of the first pornographic films in the world.
ADVERTISINGObviously, the museum is Only for over 18 yearsAnd although it was controversial when it was inaugurated, with criticisms of the municipal authorities -the SMM has always been a success (of historical value, we promise) among tourists. So why resist? DM
Kattennkabinet (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
If the crabs are not them, how are you Gatos? Hidden in a delightful house of seven centuries in an Amsterdam channel, Kattenkabinet (cat) is a unique museum completely dedicated to Artistic celebration of our feline masters.
Inside you will find an eclectic and impressive Art collection in cats: Paintings, sketches, sculptures, rare artifacts and even a mummified Egyptian cat of about 200 BC. Works by great artists such as Picasso, Rembrandt, Toulouse-Lautrec, Corneille, Sal Meijer and Théophile Steinlen proudly occupy their place. One of the walls shows an iconic artist, writers and cinema stars photographed with their feline companions. Audrey Hepburn appears next to Orangey (one of the few cats that won an award for the interpretation for “breakfast with diamonds”), Salvador Dalí places with his ocelot Babou and the 25 legendary cats of Andy Warhol, all called Sam, also adorn the exhibition.
ADVERTISINGBut the Origin of the museum It moves as much as its collection is unique. The Kattenkabinet was founded in 1990 in memory of JP Morgan, not of the banker, but of a very expensive red -haired cat who died in 1983. His afflicted, the Dutch businessman Bob Meijer, began to collect art linked to cats as a way to face the loss. The collection has grown so much that it has ended up becoming the museum we see today. And if you are lucky, you can come across one of the cats residing in the museum, who walk as if they were living exhibitions. Come to art, it remains for the snoring of the kittens. TF
