What are the 10 strangest museums in Europe: the most bizarre from the Lardo Museum to the False of Art in Vienna

The old continent is full of Curious, improbable and decidedly eccentric collections: Among the 10 strangest museums in Europe we find collections of fouls and fakes of art, passing through relationships badly up to cats (such as Kattentkabinet, the Museum of Amsterdam completely dedicated to them). Daily objects transformed into collective memory, personal passions that have become permanent exhibitions, intimate places that become public experiences. From Prague to Vienna, from London to Zagreb, many of these museums are found in famous cities, but they tell Stories that rarely end up on tourist guides: Yet precisely in these oddities the most authentic and fascinating side of a trip is often hidden.

The Icelandic Fallological Museum

The Icelandic Fallological Museum is dedicated to the collection, study and presentation of real fouls of animals and men, and of everything that has a phallic shape. The collection is that of Sigurður Hjartarson, a former principal who one day received a penis of bull as a joke: to give him a foul became a recurring joke, until he reached the sufficient number to open a small museum, then grown up. His goal was to collect at least one foul specimen of all Icelandic mammalswhich he managed to do in 2011, when he obtained his first human penis. In the museum, moved from 2020 to the heart of the capital, Reykjavík, there is also a themed bistrot.

The Prague Miniature Museum

With microscopic artistic creations on display on seeds, insects and strands of hair, The Museum of Miniatures of the Czech capital It is the only art gallery in the world in which The works can only be observed with a magnifying glass or a telescope. You will find animals painted on the paw of a mosquito, a chessboard on the head of a pin and a caravan of camels with care carefully in the sucker of a needle, and the museum also explains how these works were created.

The Museum of False of Art of Vienna

Impossible then not to include the Viennese museum of False of art: it is the only museum in the world dedicated to the counterfeiting of works of art. This small private museum tells unlikely stories of counterfeit pieces, also through the criminals that have become famous, and the visitors are also entertained and educated on the differences between originals, copies and fakes.

The love caveau in Slovakia

The town of Banská Štiavnica, in Slovakia, boasts a “bank of love” Where couples can deposit small and precious memories of their love on Valentine’s Day. This museum was created to celebrate The longest love poetry in the worlddedicated by Andrej Sladković to Maria Pischlova (who unfortunately was married to another person): called “Marina” and published in 1846, a poetry as many as 2,910 verses long. Open right in the house where she passed most of life, the museum does not only host the literary work but also A caveau of lovers with 100 thousand small drawers. However, this space could be very difficult to visit, because it has closed (it is hoped, temporarily) after a big fire in 2024.

The Museum of the Paris smoker

Dedicated to the history and culture of smokingthis small museum near the Père Lachaise cemetery houses centuries -old tabacchiere and ancient packets of cigarettes, but also delicate pipes in 17th century clay. Postcards and comics illustrate the culture of smoke of the last century, while a showcase with a dryer exposes tobacco leaves divided by geographical origin (and there is also a room dedicated to vaping).

The Museum of Navi in ​​bottle in Denmark

The art of building bottle ships touched the peak in the 19th century, and the Danish sailor Peter Jacobsen was one of the most prolific artists of the genre: during his life he made 1,700 bottle ships and 50 scale ships modelswho left the small Danish island scattered around ærø where he had a house. Here since 1943 there is a museum that celebrates its work, together with a series of its favorite pieces (many of which are more than secular) including a cross with seven ships set.

The Ukrainian Museum of Lardo

The Salo Museum, in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, celebrates the favorite ingredient of Eastern Europe cuisine: pork fat. Here you will discover everything you wanted to know about the local lard (often eaten raw, as in Italy) and its countless uses, as well as an exhibition of sculptures made with fat. You can buy themed souvenirs and there is a specialized restaurant (which offers even lard sushi).

The London Brand Museum

I travel through 200 years of culture of consumerism the collection of Museum of Brands of London. The museum houses over 12,000 original objects from the Victorian age to today: here you can find domestic products of everyday use, packaging, posters and toys, which will allow you to observe the change of the company over the past two centuries from a particular perspective.

The Relations Museum interrupted in Zagreb

Is of spirit completely opposite to the caveau of love, the Museum of interrupted relationshipsa public and virtual public space created with the sole purpose of guarding and sharing The stories of pain of his visitors and the related symbolic objects. Hosted in the Croatian capital, the museum is a collection of objects in continuous growth, each of which is a memory of a past relationship, accompanied by the personal (anonymous) history of those who gave it. The idea at the base is to offer an opportunity to overcome an emotional trauma through creativity.

The Secret Police Museum of East Germany

The Stasimuseum of Berlin is a collection of objects, photos and documents attributable to the activity of the Stasisthe notorious Secret Police of the German Democratic Republic (known as DDR or Est Germany). Hosted in the old headquarters of the DDR’s Ministry of State Security, the museum was opened in 1990 (the year after the fall of the wall) To preserve from the cancellation, the huge documentation collected in the forty -year activity of the secret police. Here are not only documents and photos, but also the Testimonies of persecuted people from the stasis and even jars containing pieces of fabric, used for the olfactory identification of suspicions.