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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Ships & more

Estonian Maritime Museum, Tallinn

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.

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Buchstabenmuseum

Buchstabenmuseum, Berlin

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.

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Hessisches Landesmuseum

Hessisches Landesmuseum, Kassel

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.

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