Museums Archives ⋆ Page 23 of 38 ⋆ The Passenger

December 21, 2019January 26, 2020

National museum

The national museum was the first point of interest I visited when coming to بيروت, Lebanon. Having seen nothing of the city before I was really surprised how modern and well designed this museum of archaeology is. The museum was founded after World War II and contains around 100,000 items from excavations in Lebanon. Highly decorated sarcophagi, fantastic mosaics, ancient coins, statues and also some mummies can be found in the exhibition – with items also dating back to the bronze age.

December 14, 2019January 27, 2020

Kunsthalle

The Hamburger Kunsthalle is a fantastic art museum close to the railway station of Hamburg, Germany. It consists of three buildings dating back to 1868, 1921 and 1996 and also the art shown here covers a long time period from the Middle Ages to modern and contemporary art. The collection is presented on 13,000 square meters throughout the interconnected buildings and you can walk there for hours enjoying fine art.

December 14, 2019January 27, 2020

Maritimes Museum

You can’t get to Hamburg, Germany, without learning something about seafaring. It is a necessity like eating fresh fish or visiting the Reeperbahn. A very good place for this is the Internationales Maritimes Museum (IMMH) located in an old storage building at the Speicherstadt. It was opened in 2008 and exhibits on nine floors nearly everything about people crossing the sea on a boat. This includes 50,000 miniature boats, numerous paintings about seafaring and special things I never heard about before like ship models made from bones.

November 30, 2019February 18, 2024

Städtisches Museum

I’m always a bit hesitant when it comes to local museums in small towns. They’re often seen as a must-have independent from the question whether there is something to exhibit or not. The Städtisches Museum of Hann. Münden, Germany, is a place I would nevertheless recommend if you’re interested in local history. It feels like a wild mix of topics and some sections look very old-fashioned but it offers enough content for an informative visit.

November 17, 2019February 10, 2020

Sergei Parajanov

Some years ago I decided that I don’t know enough about movies and watched all the classics that I thought one must have seen. Afterwards I believed that that I’m quite an expert. Oh boy was I wrong. Once again I was bound to the things typical for my cultural sphere and I didn’t recognize what was behind its borders. When I came to Երևան, Armenia, I visited the Sergei Parajanov Museum – more by accident than by intention and had to understand that I know nothing.

November 17, 2019February 13, 2020

Erebuni

The germ cell of the capital city of Armenia is located on a mountain called Arin-Berd south of the city. Erebuni is a fortress created in 782 BC which makes Երևան one of the oldest cities in the world. Next to the mountain, you can today find a museum with a very impressive exterior design referring to the time the castle was built. Within you can learn about the excavations made here, see a lot of items found at this place and get more information about ancient Երևան.

November 15, 2019February 6, 2020

Matenadaran

Ever heard of Mesrop Mashtots? Probably not. He was living between 360 and 440 CE in Armenia and invented the beautiful Armenian alphabet. You will get to know him when visiting Matenadaran (meaning ‘library’ in old Armenian language), the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Scriptures – a statue of him is standing in front of it. The wonderful building is just a portal; behind it, you will find a museum and its storage carved deep into the mountain to protect the content even in case of an attack with an atomic bomb.

November 15, 2019February 7, 2020

Zizernakaberd

East of the city centre of Երևան, Armenia, you can find a mountain formerly covered with forest – the Zizernakaberd (swallows’ fortress). On its top, you can nowadays see two things: a giant sports and culture centre for up to 6,000 spectators and more important, the central remembrance place for the genocide against the Armenians in 1915. It is a catastrophic end of a long-lasting history of conflicts based on religion – between the Christian Armenians and the Muslim Turks.

November 15, 2019February 5, 2020

Modern art

The Museum of Modern Art in Երևան, Armenia, is a little bit hard to find and placed in a rather unusual location. It can be found at the Mesrop Mashtots Avenue near the city centre and the Blue Mosque – but it is located in the basement of a building standing in the second row and above the museum there are flats. It therefore looks a bit improvised from the outside but it is really worth a visit.

November 15, 2019February 5, 2020

National gallery

You can find the national gallery of Armenia at the Republic square of Երևան. It is within the building that also hosts the historic museum and you have to get up to the first floor to enter it. Looking through the very high staircase you can see that there seven floors full of art to discover – and an ancient elevator obviously from Soviet times. Already the building is like travelling in time. In 56 halls you can see Armenian, but also Russian and European art.