A unique opportunity to travel through time and space is provided by museums, which contain exhibits of various national cultures created by the hands of both modern masters and famous ancestors. The topic of the article is the most famous and great museums in the world that you should visit.
general review
What criteria are taken as a basis?
- One of the most important is attendance. The leader is the French Louvre, whose record is approaching 10 million people. In second place is the British Museum (about 8 million). The Metropolitan Museum (USA) and the Vatican Museum are respectively third and fourth in the rankings. Each of them exceeded the attendance threshold of 6 million.
- Footprint. The leader here is again the Louvre, although officially it is assigned the third position (160 thousand square meters). Formally, it is ahead of, for example, the Art Museum of Japan (Tokyo), but the exhibition area of the Louvre is the most impressive (58 thousand square meters).
- The greatest museums in the world are determined by the number of exhibits and their historical value.
- Another criterion is the choice of travelers. The Traveller's Choice competition is held annually, which has the "Museums of the World" nomination. In 2016, the Metropolitan Museum of Art topped the rating, and the top ten included the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hermitage (third position) and the very young September 11 Museum (USA), opened in 2013. Its expositions are dedicated to the tragic events in New York.
Greatest Louvre (France)
Before becoming a museum, the Louvre was a fortress, and then the residence of the kings of France. Its expositions were presented to the public in 1793, during the Great Bourgeois Revolution. The unique collection was formed by King Francis I and constantly replenished. Its treasuries today contain more than 300,000 exhibits, 35,000 of which are on display for visitors at the same time: from Egyptian and Phoenician antiquities to modern sculptures and jewelry.
The most valuable works of art are the statues of Venus de Milo and Nike of Samothrace, Delacroix and the great Rembrandt. Art lovers come to see the masterpiece of the outstanding Renaissance master Leonard da Vinci - "Mona Lisa". In 1911, the painting was stolen by an Italian from Perugia, but returned 27 months later after lengthy negotiations with Italy. All the greatest museums in the world ensure the preservation of paintings. "Mona Lisa" is the only exhibit that is not insured by the state, because it is considered priceless.
Today, the museum, located on Rue Rivoli in the center of Paris, includes the Old and New Louvre. In 1989, the American Yong Ming Pei implemented a project to unite the Louvre into a single complex. A special entrance was built in the form of a glass pyramid, which made it possible to triple the number of visitors.
British Museum (London)
The date of its foundation (1753) is impressive. The beginning of the collection was laid by the doctor Hans Sloan, a collector of ancient manuscripts, books, plants and medals. Today it is the largest historical and archaeological repository in Great Britain, where about 13 million exhibits are collected. They are placed in 100 galleries on a territorial and chronological basis. The pearls of the exposition are the marbles of the Parthenon, attributed to the Greek sculptor Phidias, who made it possible to decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, a piece of the beard of the Great Sphinx from Giza. The world's greatest museums have formed rich collections by robbing colonial countries.
In the 19th century, the old building was demolished, and in its place, the architect Robert Smike built a unique neoclassical building. Located in the Bloomsbury area, in the 20th century it underwent redevelopment (Foster's project), acquiring a modern look. A feature of the museum is the creation on its basis in 1972 of a separate structure - the British Library.
Vatican Museums - a single complex
It is generally accepted that the complex occupies the largest area. The impression is formed due to the high density of exhibits per unit area. The entire Vatican is located on just half a square kilometer, while the museum's fund is 50 thousand paintings, sculptures and jewelry. All the greatest museums in the world (photos are presented in the article) have unique features.
The main shrine of this is the Sistine Chapel, where since the 15th century it has been painted with frescoes by the great Michelangelo, it is the crown of the creation of human hands. To get there, you need to go through dozens of museum halls, enjoying the magnificence of Catholic churches, tombs and paintings by Raphael and other artists.
The small state itself can be viewed as a single museum of architectural monuments, the construction of which began in the 14th century.
Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA)
The New York Museum ranks first among Traveller's Choice laureates, although it was founded in a later period - in 1870. It began with private collections donated to the state and exhibited in the premises of the dance school. At the turn of the century, the main building was built by the architect Hyde , and a little later - the side wings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, representing a number of buildings of different times.They are connected by stairs and passages, storing 3 million works of art.Here is the largest collection created by the Costume Institute.
Not all of the world's greatest museums, which are described in the article, can boast of holding large-scale events, such as the annual Met Gala charity ball with the participation of world stars. In 2016, the Costume Institute celebrated its 70th anniversary.
National Prado Museum
The painting of the great Spaniards is presented in Madrid. The National Museum was founded in 1785 and has collected large-scale collections of paintings by Goya, Velasquez, Zurbaran and El Greco. There are also works by great Italian and Flemish masters, samples of ancient coins, jewelry and porcelain. Since 1819, the museum has been housed in the current classicist building (architect Villanueva) and is open to visitors. On an area of 58 thousand square meters. meters exhibited 1300 works, and the rest (more than 20 thousand) are stored in storerooms.
The world's greatest museums often have branches. The contemporary art of the Prado is presented in Villahermosa Palace. A feature of the Spanish museum is the restrained elegance of the buildings, in contrast to the Louvre and the Hermitage, which we will dwell on below.
Hermitage (St. Petersburg)
The name is translated from French as a secluded place, but today it is one of the most visited in the world. Founded by Catherine at the end of the 18th century, the museum has the title of the best in 2014. Under Nicholas I, the collection became so large that the doors of the Imperial Palace opened to the public. Today, 3 million works of art delight the eye of visitors, telling a story from the Stone Age. Of particular interest are the Diamond and Gold Storerooms of the Hermitage, where an additional ticket is required.
The great Russian museums are located in buildings of cultural and historical significance for the country. The Hermitage consists of five buildings spread out on the banks of the Neva (Palace Embankment). Luxurious Winter Palace in baroque style by architect B. Rastrelli is the decoration of St. Petersburg and the greatest historical monument.
It does not matter whether young boys and girls full of energy or measured, wise people of a more mature age are traveling, wherever a tourist goes to aristocratic Europe, majestic Russia, ancient Africa or young America, there will be famous museums of the world everywhere on the route.
Museums in Europe
Formerly a palace, the Louvre enchants with its architecture, but first of all it is an art museum of the world. Initially, the Louvre had only 2,500 paintings, while now, its collection has exceeded 6,000 paintings. Rembrandt, da Vinci, Rubens, Titian, Poussin, David, Enger, Delacroix, Reni, Caravaggio and this is only a small part of the famous artists, whose paintings are kept in the famous museum of Europe. In addition to painting, the Louvre owns an excellent collection of sculptures, furniture, jewelry and utensils from different times and eras, and also shows tourists the unique interiors of famous historical figures. All this allows the Louvre to bear the title of the most famous museum in Europe.
In any of the lists of famous museums in the world, there is the British Museum in London. It is not only included in the list of the oldest museums in the world, but offers to get acquainted with the exhibits collected on seven continents and having more than one thousand years of history. Relics of ancient Egypt, French applied art of the 17th century, the Rosetta Stone, sculptures of Greece, Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and even the famous stones from Easter Island are stored here.
Among the famous museums of the world, the museum in the Vatican occupies a worthy place, standing out from the rest not only for its religiosity, but also for 22 separate collections of masterpieces. Having examined the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, Raphael's apartments, the Vatican Pinakothek, it is impossible to remain indifferent. Non-religious people, representatives of scientific views, will be able to admire the collection of geographical maps displayed here.
Also among the museums of Europe are worthy of attention:
1. Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which owns the most incredible collection of paintings and sculptures in the world;
2. State Museum in Amsterdam, which stores Rembrandt's masterpiece "The Night Watch";
3. Prado Museum in Madrid, which has an amazing collection of Spanish art;
4. Dresden Art Gallery, which survived the bombing of World War II.
Museums of Russia
All art museums of the world bow before the collection of paintings presented in the Hermitage, which is rightfully recognized as the most numerous. The founder of the collection of paintings was Catherine II, and today it has about 60 thousand paintings. With over three million exhibits and seven separate buildings, it is no surprise that the Hermitage has taken its rightful place among the most famous museums in the world. Canvases, precious stones, archaeological finds from different eras, pieces of furniture from tsarist Russia, personal belongings of Russian tsars - the number of exhibits is striking in variety.
It is impossible to visit Moscow and not visit the State Tretyakov Gallery, the most famous museum in Russia, which will first of all introduce you to the art school of Russian masters. These are paintings by Vrubel, Shishkin, Perov, Malevich. The museum features painting exhibits spanning the classical schools of icon painting and the bold avant-garde. The Tretyakov Gallery keeps the largest collection of fine arts of the Russian nation, it has 57,000 works.
Museums of Africa and America
Egyptian culture is not only one of the most ancient, but mysterious in the world, so it is not surprising that the Egyptian Museum in Cairo is on the list of the most visited, and, therefore, the most famous museums in the world. Here is the most complete collection of masterpieces and archaeological finds of Egyptian culture, about 120 thousand exhibits. In this museum you can find items with a history of five thousand years, admire the wealth of Ancient Egypt, see with your own eyes the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses II the Great.
The history of the existence of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York began with the desire of businessmen to introduce ordinary Americans to the heritage of world art, because it was private collections that formed the basis of the museum's exhibits. Initially, the museum was positioned as an art museum, however, today it occupies a worthy place among the art museums of the world. Exhibits of ancient cultures are exhibited here, as well as art objects of modern masters. It is worth noting that the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the most famous museum of works of art in the United States of America.
But how to visit these museums and not spend all your savings? There is an exit!. Additionally, we can collect information about the sights and countries of the world in order to create the best travel route.
1. Louvre (France Paris)
Perhaps, the most famous museum in the world. The former building of the royal palace became a museum in the 18th century. It is located on 160,106 square meters, which you can’t get around in a few days. But for tourists, there are short sightseeing tours for 2 hours, which are designed to get acquainted with the most popular and iconic exhibits.
2. Hermitage (Russia, Saint-Petersburg)
Here is placed the world's largest collection of paintings. It is the most visited museum in Russia. It is loved by both tourists from other countries and locals. The beginning of the Hermitage was laid by Catherine II, who acquired works of art for herself.
3. Cairo Egyptian Museum (Egypt, Cairo)
In this museum, in addition to the collection of Egyptian art, there are exhibits of the tomb of Tutankhamun. The most ancient artifacts of the museum are at least five thousand years old. The Cairo Museum has everything that was saved after the excavations.
4. British Museum (Great Britain, London)
This is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world. It contains masterpieces and relics from different eras from around the world. Here are exhibits of ancient Egypt, which are not even in the Cairo Museum. And London itself hosts more museums and exhibitions than any other capital in the world.
5. Uffizi Gallery (Italy, Florence)
This museum was created as a collection of statues, but many years later, it became a collection the largest collection of famous paintings.
6. Vatican Museum (Italy, Rome, Vatican)
The Vatican is the smallest state in the world, but for any tourist, the Vatican is only a museum and the Cathedral of St. Peter. Tours at the Vatican Museum are like the subway at rush hour, and the opening time is generally better to oversleep or spend it on booking a ticket via the Internet. And on Monday, when all other museums are closed, it’s better not to go there at all. But, despite the hype, this museum is still impossible not to visit.
7. Prado Museum (Spain, Madrid)
It is one of the most visited museums in the world. Every year, the expositions of the Prado Museum attract more than 2.5 million tourists from all over the world. Compared to the museums described above, the Prado Museum is the smallest.
8. State Museum in Amsterdam (Netherlands, Amsterdam)
The largest museum in the country. In 1906 it was rebuilt to accommodate paintings by Rembrandt "Night watch". Most tourists visit the museum because of her.
9. Metropolitan Museum (USA, New York)
The main building of the Museum - The Met, according to experts, is the world's largest art gallery. And the museum collection, which contains exhibits from the times of Antiquity and Ancient Egypt, to paintings and sculptures by almost all modern masters, is one of the largest and most important collections on earth.
10. National Museum of Archeology (Greece, Athens)
Here is the meeting exhibits of ancient Greece from the Neolithic to Roman times, which were not exported from Greece to other museums of the world numerous conquerors.
Original article and photo: tvoytrip.ru
This incredible underwater museum, with dozens of life-sized sculptures, is used as artificial coral reefs for local flora and fauna.
2. Hermann Boerhaave Museum. City of Leiden, Netherlands
Before becoming a museum dedicated to human mutations, before mutation became a great discovery in medicine, botany and physiology, this building was a simple hospital. Now in it you can see the collection of Sebald Justinus Brugmans, which includes jars, test tubes and various kinds of mutations in them.
3. Museum of instant noodles Momofuku Ando. Osaka city, Japan
5. Divorce Museum. City of Zagreb, Croatia
Every item in this collection - whether it's a wedding dress or even an axe - has its own story in the final stages of a failed relationship.
6. Museum of bad art. City of Beston, Massachusetts
This museum features the works of famous artists who have gone awry, as well as strange copies of paintings by other artists.
7. Sewer Museum of Paris. City of Paris, France
Believe it or not. But this museum dedicated to the sewers of Paris was founded in the Paris sewers in 1800, and it is still active today. It presents many historical exhibits and not necessarily on the theme of its name.
8. Mutter Museum. City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
This museum boasts hundreds of specimens of skulls and skeletons showing numerous pathologies in the human structure.
9. Museum of dog collars. City of Kent, England
This museum has collected accessories for man's best friend for five centuries.
10. Museum of death. City of Los Angeles, California City of New Orleans, Louisiana
According to its creators, the museum was founded in 1995 "so that visitors can find out the whole truth hidden from them in the media regarding some events related to the death or murder of people." The museum does not conduct tours. Each visitor can independently examine everything, which will take about an hour.
The museum itself, in addition to numerous autopsy documents, videos and photographs from crime scenes, also contains the head of Bluebeard, a French serial killer.
11. Vent-Heyvan Museum. City of Fort Havan, Kentucky
This museum has amassed an incredible collection of posters and photographs that describe the history of the talking dolls. It is worth a visit if you are not confused by the sight of hundreds of dolls watching you from the very beginning to the end of your visit to the museum.
12. Museum of paintings "Cat's House". City of Amsterdam, Netherlands
This museum has collected an incredible collection of sculptures, paintings and other utensils about cats. All of them indicate that these hairballs are an integral part of human life.
13. Museum of Bread Culture. City of Ulm, Germany
Despite the fact that this museum has collected 16,000 relics related to baking, there are almost no examples of baking or recipes for it in this museum.
14. House of Winchesters. City of San Jose, California
In 1884, the house was purchased by Sarah Winchester, widow of William Winchester, son of Oliver Winchester, inventor of the famous rifle.
After her husband's death, Sarah had an audience with a medium in Boston who "communicated with the spirit of her late husband." The spirit of the deceased allegedly reported that Sarah's misfortunes (the death of her only daughter shortly after birth, the relatively early death of William) are due to the fact that the family is cursed with those who died from a rifle created by his father. In order to avoid further problems, the woman must build a special house in which the spirits cannot harm her. The widow bought the house and spent almost all of her millions on rebuilding it.
15. Museum of British lawn mowers. City of Southport, England
Not only does this museum have 200-year-old lawn mowers, but visitors are also allowed to try out the lawn mowers used by Princess Diana and Prince Charles.
16. Jurassic Technology Museum. City of Los Angeles, California
The name of the museum has nothing to do with dinosaurs. Here is a whole collection of scientific and artistic rarities.
According to the head of the Smithsonian Institution, "Museums like this, unlike most others, are very important because they show the history of the development of scientific technology, which kindle people's interest in science."
Despite the fact that some of the exhibits, such as the decaying bones of the Russian dogs Belka and Strelka, are fake, the guides still show them as genuine. Visitors have something to discuss among themselves.
17. Barney Smith Art Museum. City of San Antonio, Texas
Retired plumber Barney Smith has created over 1,000 works of art on toilet lids. At first, for 10 years, he collected his works in his old garage, but when journalists found out about his collection and crowds of people began to come to him, the garage was rebuilt into a real museum.
November 8, 1793 was opened to the public, perhaps the most famous art museum in the world - the Louvre. Today we will talk about him and other of the greatest art collections that everyone should visit.
The most famous museum in France and one of the most popular museums in the world covers more than 106 thousand square meters in the heart of beautiful Paris. The Louvre as a museum first opened its doors to connoisseurs of beauty on November 8, 1793 - at that time there were two and a half thousand paintings in its collections. If you are visiting the Louvre for the first time, ignore the deceptive impression of incredible complexity that it gives: in fact, the museum exhibition is very rationally organized, and it is not difficult to understand it at all. In the three wings of the museum - Richelieu, Denon and Sully - there are 8 departments, interconnected by passages and halls. In the most popular, southern, part of the Louvre, called Denon, there are always a lot of visitors: masterpieces of world art are kept here, for example, the Mona Lisa and many works by famous French painters of the 19th century. You should not even try to get around the entire museum in one day - it is better to stop at one of the more than 6 thousand paintings created by recognized European masters of the 13-19 centuries and enjoy the beauty of what you see.
At the villa of oil tycoon Paul Getty in Malibu, for more than one year there has been a complex that has become one of the largest and most sought-after art museums in the world. The villa was built from 16 tons of golden travertine, from which the mansion of the Roman emperor Troyan was erected, buried under the ashes of Vesuvius, and fountains and waterfalls rustle around it and luxurious gardens bloom. The museum's second branch, the more modern Getty Center, opened in 1997. It took as much as 1.3 billion dollars to create it: funds were spent not only on luxurious interiors, but also on the purchase of works of art at the most expensive and prestigious auctions in the world. All exhibits of the museum are placed in chronological order in 5 pavilions located on the territory of the Getty Center. The most famous masterpieces for which the museum's collection is famous are Van Gogh's "Irises", paintings by Titian, Tintoretto, Monet and Rubens, a statue of Cybele dating back to the first century AD, and Pontormo's "Portrait of a young man with a halberd".
The State Tretyakov Gallery, named after the famous Russian collector Pavel Tretyakov, boasts the best collection of paintings by Russian masters and creators of the Soviet period in the world. Thinking of founding a museum that reflects the features of the Russian art school as vividly as possible, Pavel Mikhailovich spent a lot of money and effort selecting and acquiring paintings and icons. His taste was so impeccable that to get a picture that Tretyakov looked after for the collection was considered the pinnacle of social recognition. Museum exhibits of the Tretyakov Gallery belong to the period from the 10th to the 20th century AD. and cover all areas of painting of the Russian land, including icon painting and avant-garde. Numerous halls of the buildings included in the museum complex contain many recognized masterpieces by Perov, Bryullov, Vrubel, Shishkin and Savrasov, and the most controversial and popular exhibit is the famous Black Square by Malevich.
One of the oldest museums in Europe, founded in 1722, is located in the very center of the German city of Dresden. A separate building for the museum was built in 1855, when the collection of paintings by old masters was already about two thousand copies - it was specially designed to form a harmonious ensemble with the rest of the buildings of the Zwinger palace complex. As a result of the bombing of the city during the Second World War, the complex, and with it the art gallery, were almost completely destroyed. More than two hundred masterpieces were lost forever, but the most famous were saved. The restoration of the canvases lasted for 20 years, over which professionals from all over the world pored over, and the restoration of the Zwinger took about the same time. Today the Dresden Art Gallery is a museum equipped with all modern devices. Its exposition presents fifteen works by Rembrandt, a dozen creations by Van Dyck, Titian's masterpieces "Caesar's Denarius", "Madonna with Family" and the beautiful creation of Raphael's "Sistine Madonna", which art connoisseurs from all over the world come to see.
The main New York museum, which has collected in its vaults one of the richest collections of art treasures in the world, was founded in 1870 by several public figures and representatives of the art world. The first exhibits of the museum were works of art that were previously in private collections. Today, as well as more than 100 years ago, the Metropolitan Museum exists at the expense of attracted funds from private investors, which are managed by the board of trustees. The most famous part of the museum, for which many visitors come here, is the section of American decorative art, which has more than 12 thousand works of masters of the 17th-20th centuries, which took as many as 25 rooms to accommodate. The main hall of the museum awaits connoisseurs of painting, where the works of the great creators of the Renaissance are collected: Botticelli, Titian, Raphael and Tintoretto, as well as famous representatives of the Dutch school. Until this year, the “chip” of the Metropolitan Museum was tin button badges that replaced tickets, but now they had to switch to a paper version - the entrance fee has become recommended, and not fixed, as before.
