Guernica

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid

The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is a fantastic art museum at Madrid, Spain. It resides in two interconnected buildings close to the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V and the metro stop Estación del Arte. The older building has a wonderful inner courtyard with trees and sculptures, the new building includes a wonderful roofed terrace with good views on the city. The museum itself is like a labyrinth: you can walk in it for ours, get lost and continuous discover new sections with interesting artworks.

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Kunsthalle

Kunsthalle, Bremen

The Kunsthalle Bremen is an art museum next to the city center of Bremen, Germany. It is located between the northern end of the Osterdeich along river Weser and the Stadtgraben (the water next to the former city fortifications). From the museum it is a very short walk to the main market place. The art collection dates back to the year 1823, the current building was created in 1849.

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Museum of illusions

Museum of Illusions, Vilnius

The museum of illusions (iliuzijų muziejus) is a funny place to be and for playing with optical and physical effects. It is not very big and not cheap (11 Euro per adult) but there are numerous experiments you can do and a lot of photo opportunities (like standing on a non-existing giant chair, being duplicated in different colours of light or creating the appearance that you can walk top-down on the ceiling of a room).

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MO muziejus

MO museum, Vilnius

It is a brand new museum for modern art: the MO museum (MO muziejus) at Vilnius, Lithuania. This museum was just opened in 2018 and already the architecture of the building – designed by Polnisch-American architect Daniel Libeskind – would be worth a visit. It was created by the initiative of two private art collectors.

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Depressive

KGB prision, Vilnius

The occupation and freedom museum (Okupacijų ir laisvės kovų muziejus) in Vilnius, Lithuania can really bring you to a bad mood. It is a museum about repression and it is located at the original place where everything happened (and there are not many authentic places like this – another example is the House of Terror at Budapest, Hungary). The building was originally a court of law, but in 1940 the Soviet KGB moved in, in 1941 the German Gestapo took over and later in 1941 the KGB came back. Both used this place for torture, interrogations and executions of political enemies.

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Lithuanian national museum

Lithuanian National Museum, Vilnius

The national museum of Lithuania at Vilnius was founded in 1855 and preserves a large collection of historical items and documents. If you want to see all parts of the collection you’ll have to visit different buildings – the main location is the new arsenal in the former lower castle not far away from the cathedral square. The presentation of items in the museum is a bit old-school but it’s worth a visit if you’re interested in history.

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National art museum

Latvian National Art Museum, Rīga

The national art museum (Latvijas Nacionālais mākslas muzejs) of Rīga, Latvia can be found close to the art nouveau quarter of the city within the Esplanāde park. It is located in a wonderful building designed by Wilhelm Neumann and dateing back to the year 1905. It contains 52.000 art works and is the most important collection of works of Latvian artists – including paintings and sculptures.

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Occupation & freedom

VABAMU, Tallinn

Estonia is a young state gaining independence only in 1990. In the past it was occupied three times by Germans (1941-1944) and Soviets (1940-1941, 1944-1990) – independence and having an own state is therefore of big importance for Estonians. What occupation means and what chances and challenges freedom creates is discussed in the Okupatsioonide ja vabaduse muuseum (VABAMU) – the museum of occupations and freedom at Tallinn, Estonia.

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