Museums Archives ⋆ Page 9 of 37 ⋆ The Passenger

January 6, 2024January 10, 2024

Schloss Karlsruhe

The city layout of Karlsruhe is special: when looking at a map you can see a giant circle in the city center. In its middle you’ll find the castle with the castle tower. From there 32 streets radiate out giving the city the nickname of the ‘fan city‘, the Fächerstadt. The city was founded in 1715 and in that year also the construction works of the Baroque-style castle started. It served as the seat of margrave Charles III William of Baden-Durlach and was a residence until the year 1918 when the Grand Duchy of Baden was abolished.

December 3, 2023December 17, 2023

Abstraction

The Kunsthalle of Bielefeld is a surprisingly large exhibition hall with a special style: it was built in 1968 in International Style (a modernist architecture style developed in the 1920/30s) by architect Philip Johnson from the United States. It is the only building in Europe designed by him. The Kunsthalle is an art exhibition hall with changing exhibitions, but it also owns an art collection from the 20th century.

October 6, 2023December 17, 2023

Georgian architecture

The ethnographic open-air museum is located close to the turtle lake in a hill south of the city center of თბილისი. Since 1966 it collects, preserves and exhibits buildings from all regions of Georgia. This includes classic farm houses, a vineyard building, a church and a water mill.

October 6, 2023December 17, 2023

National gallery

If you like to enjoy the artworks of local artists you shouldn’t miss the national gallery of თბილისი. It is located at the Rustaveli avenue and surrounded by the 9th April park (remembering the peaceful uprise in 1989). The gallery is a modern art exhibition hall that shows well-made exhibitions on two floors.

October 4, 2023December 3, 2023

Azerbaijani avant-garde

The Museum of Modern Art (Müasir İncəsənət Muzeyi) at Bakı is an unexpected gem aside of the areas typically visited by touristis – the old city center is far away, even the boulevard stretching along the shore ends before you reach the museum. Once you’ve found your way you’ll be rewarded with a large collection of contemporary Azerbaijani art in a very special museum building.

October 4, 2023November 19, 2023

Xalça Muzeyi

Carpet making has a long tradition at Azerbaijan. There are different schools for that and every region has its unique style. To remember that and to built a bridge between the traditional and the new Azerbaijan the new carpet museum (Xalça Muzeyi) has been opened at Bakı in 2014 directly at the shore of the Caspian sea. The architecture of the museum is special as it copies the shape of a rolled-up carpet (or a jelly roll) – a nice idea, but it seems to make presenting the collection of carpets and rugs a bit uneasy.

October 4, 2023November 19, 2023

National art museum

A fantastic collection of art can be found southeast of the İçəri Şəhər of Bakı: the Azərbaycan Milli İncəsənət Muzeyi (national art museum). It was founded in 1936 and contains 17,000 items of which 3,000 are on display in two buildings dating back to the first oil boom in Azerbaijan. And that is already the most important thing you need to know: the museum consists of two buildings that are connected and which you both need to see.

October 1, 2023November 5, 2023

Fine arts

The Georgian Museum of Fine Arts is a modern art museum at თბილისი and it is probably the museum I like most in the capital city of Georgia. Privately owned and located on Rustaveli avenue it houses a massive collection of Georgian art – from artists you probably haven’t heard in western Europe or the rest of the world. That is mostly because these artists created their works mostly during Soviet times and the Iron Curtain prevented them getting known on the other side. A perfect chance to change this!

October 1, 2023November 5, 2023

Georgian national museum

If you like to visit museums at თბილისი there is one place to be: the Shota Rustaveli avenue starting north of Liberty square. A wide boulevard with historic buildings containing the national gallery, the national museum of fine arts and the Simon Janashia Museum of Georgia, which is part of the Georgian national museum complex. It contains a vast collection of archeological and ethnographic artefacts giving insight into the development of the culture, the people and the state of Georgia.

October 1, 2023November 5, 2023

City history

The city history museum of თბილისი can be a nice place for visitors or a disappointment; that’s depending on your expectations. The building with an art nouveau facade dates back to the 19th century and copies the structures of an ancient caravanserai of the Silk Road. It contains the city history museum on the ground floor and a bar, a wine museum and some shops in the basement. I found the building itself to be really beautiful but the museum could really be extended. The city history museum is located on Sioni street next to the Sioni cathedral.