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.
Continue reading “Lithuanian national museum”Occupation museum
The museum of the occupation of Latvia (Latvijas Okupācijas muzejs) at Rīga is currently at a temporary location. A new and modern building is created next to the town hall and the Melngalvju nams. Until its completion the museum can be found in Raiņa bulvāris 7 – not for from the freedom monument. There it is only a small collection of texts, images and some items in display cabinets.
Continue reading “Occupation museum”National art museum
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.
Continue reading “National art museum”Occupation & freedom
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.
Continue reading “Occupation & freedom”Ships & more
Estonia is a sea-faring nation and of course there is a museum dedicated to that topic at Tallinn, Estonia. The Eesti Meremuuseum has it’s main location in the ‘fat margret‘ tower at Pikk 70 which is currently closed for renovation – therefore I could only visit the secondary location at the old waterplane harbour in Lennusadam. It can be reached on foot or by using a small train on wheels.
Continue reading “Ships & more”Landesmuseum
The Landesmuseum Hannover is a special museum located between the Sprengel-Museum and the Neues Rathaus of Hannover, Germany. It calls itself ‘WeltenMuseum‘ because it shows different separate worlds: nature, mankind and art. The building in renaissance revival architecture style was built in 1902.
Continue reading “Landesmuseum”Sprengel-Museum
Directly next to the Maschsee at Hannover, Germany you can find one of the most important museums of modern art in Germany. It focusses on German expressionism and modern art of French artists. The starting point was the collection of Margit and Bernhard Sprengel – chocolate factory owners from Hannover-Vinnhorst.
Continue reading “Sprengel-Museum”Buchstabenmuseum
It is a retirement home for old illuminated letters and advertisement signs: the Buchstabenmuseum (letter museum) at Berlin, Germany. Since already 14 years a club of volunteers collects and exhibits letters and advertisement signs with a history. They had to change their location already five times and are now located under a Stadtbahnbogen near S-Bahn stop Bellevue.
Continue reading “Buchstabenmuseum”Hessisches Landesmuseum
The Hessisches Landesmuseum at Kassel, Germany is a museum about the history of Hesse from the very early days on. It is located in a building dateing back to the year 1913 close to the Brüder-Grimm-Platz and I guess I would have never visited it if I hadn’t received a recommendation. It’s the cumbersome name and the ancient building that didn’t let me expect anything interesting inside – but I was absolutely wrong.
Continue reading “Hessisches Landesmuseum”Science Museum
South Kensington is the place-to-be at London, United Kingdom for museum enthusiasts. People get here mostly for the Natural History Museum and the Victoria & Albert. In between these giants and their fantastic architectures it is easy to overlook another pearl: the Science Museum.
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