Where are the most famous museums in the world? The most famous museums

Today, there are about one hundred thousand museums all over the world, and this figure is not exact, since new ones are periodically opened and existing ones are developed. In every corner of the world, even the smallest populated areas, there are local history or other museums dedicated to one or another topic. The most big museums all are known in the world: some contain the maximum number of exhibits, while others amaze with their scope and area.

Largest museums of fine art

If we take European fine art, then one of the largest collections is collected in Uffizi Gallery in Italy. The gallery is located in the Florence Palace from 1560 and consists of paintings by the most famous creators of the world: Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, Lippi and Botticelli.

One of the largest museums is no less famous visual arts- . The foundation of the museum dates back to the end of the 18th century, when it was decided to make the royal collection a property and heritage of culture, to give everyone the opportunity to look at it. Complete collections of works by Bosch, Goya, El Greco and Velazquez are stored there.

Among the largest museums, it is definitely worth noting Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin in Moscow. Priceless collections of works are stored there French impressionists, meetings west European painting.

The largest art museums in the world

The most famous among the largest artistic works is rightfully considered Hermitage. A museum complex of five buildings housing exhibits from the Stone Age to the 20th century. Initially it was only private collection Catherine II, consisting of works by Dutch and Flemish artists.

One of the largest art museums is Subway in New York. Its founders were several businessmen who revered art and knew a lot about it. Initially, the basis was made up of three private collections, then the exhibition began to grow rapidly. Today, the main support for the museum is provided by sponsors; the state practically does not take part in the development. The amazing thing is that you can get into one of the largest museums in the world for a nominal fee, even just asking for a ticket at the ticket office without money.

Among the largest museums in the world, both in terms of the number of exhibits and the occupied space, their places of honor occupy Gugun in China and Cairo egyptian museums . Gugun is a huge architectural and museum complex, which is approximately three times larger than the Moscow Kremlin. Each of the museums has its own special history and is worthy of the attention of tourists.

Users of the popular travel resource TripAdvisor named best museums peace.

In total, there are 591 museums in the TripAdvisor rating, from which the 25 best in the world were selected. It is noteworthy that the Hermitage was ahead of such treasuries as the London National Gallery, State Museum(Rijksmuseum) in Amsterdam, the Vasa Museum in Stockholm and the National Anthropological Museum in Mexico City.

About what masterpieces can be seen in the collections of these museum collections in our review.

1st place. Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

It houses one of the largest collections of art in the world - more than two million pieces dating back to Ancient culture And Ancient Egypt and ending with canvases of almost everyone modern masters painting. The entire museum collection is today divided into 19 independent sections. The largest in terms of the number of exhibits is the “Art of Asia” section, where more than 60 thousand objects are exhibited, reflecting the entire history Central Asia. Another “celebrity” of the museum is the “Egyptian Section,” the collection of which is one of the richest in the world: according to experts, it is second only to Egypt itself with its pyramids. For example, in one of the halls the entire ancient Egyptian temple of Dendur is on display.
Perhaps, the “Weapons and Armor” section, which contains weapons from all over our planet, from the fifth to the nineteenth century, enjoys perhaps the greatest interest among visitors. The volume of the collection is about 14 thousand items, among them there are many things that were used by royalty, including the armor of King Henry VIII of England, King Henry II of France and Emperor Ferdinand I.

2nd place. Orsay Museum in Paris.

These are three floors of unique collections, mainly impressionist and post-impressionist. About 4000 exhibits. This is how the scandalous work of the French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux is presented here - the sculpture of Count Ugolino, created by him under the impression of reading “ Divine Comedy» Dante. One of the most terrible characters in the work is depicted in languid anticipation of the death of his children. Another pearl of Orsay is the painting “Olympia” - one of the early works of Edouard Manet, one of the founders of impressionism. His “Luncheon on the Grass” is also exhibited in Orsay.

A separate room is dedicated to the work of Gustave Courbet: in Orsay one of the most famous works the artist’s “Funeral in Ornans” and another equally famous painting, “The Origin of the World,” which even today can shock the viewer.
In Orsay you can trace the formation of another great artist - Claude Monet. Several works by the great impressionist are exhibited here: “Women in the Garden”, “Magpie”, “Rouen Cathedral in the Sun”.

3rd place. Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago is also known for its French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, as well as American art. These are dozens of paintings by Claude and Edouard Monet, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Pierre Auguste Renoir. Masterpieces of the collection: Van Gogh’s paintings “Bedroom in Arles” and “Self-Portrait”, “Two Sisters” by Pierre Auguste Renoir, “At the Moulin Rouge” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, “Parisian Street in Rainy Weather” by Gustave Caillebotte.
In addition to paintings, the Art Institute of Chicago houses textiles and photographs that characterize culture early period almost the entire history North America. Furniture is also displayed in the museum halls late Middle Ages from Europe and Asia, armor of European knights and coats of arms famous names Old World, handicrafts made of porcelain, glass and silver, brought here from different parts of the planet.

4th place. Prado Museum in Madrid.

Opened in 1819, the museum has one of the world's largest collections European art. Today his collection consists of more than 7,600 paintings, 1,000 sculptures, 4,800 prints, 8,000 drawings and a huge number of objects decorative arts and historical documents. The permanent exhibition of the museum includes about 1,300 objects of art. Today the Prado has the most full meeting works by Hieronymus Bosch, El Greco, Diego Velazquez, Goya. Here you can see paintings by such masters as Raphael, van Eyck, Rubens, Durer, Titian and other important artists.

5th place Louvre in Paris.

Another museum with an exclusive collection of European painting, sculpture and other fine arts from the Middle Ages to the birth of Impressionism, as well as an unrivaled collection of antiquities from the Middle East, Egypt, Rome and Greece. The most famous paintings of the Louvre: “La Gioconda” by Leonardo da Vinci, “The Beautiful Gardener” by Raphael, “The Little Beggar” by Murillo, “The Lacemaker” by Vermeer, “Self-Portrait with a Thistle” by Durer.
The most famous sculptures museum - the Venus de Milo, found in 1820 and then acquired by the French ambassador from the Turkish government, and the Nike of Samothrace, found in parts in 1863 on the island of Samothrace.

6th place. State Hermitage Museum.

The museum presents the entire retrospective of world art - from the Stone Age to the end of the 20th century. The art gallery of the “old masters” is very popular: the Florentines are also here High Renaissance, Bolognese school, “little Dutchmen”, paintings by Rubens and Tiepolo, French classicism and Rococo. There are Italian and Old Dutch "primitives", Spanish and English school. Among the pearls of the collection of old European paintings is “ Madonna Benoit"Leonardo da Vinci, "Judith" Giorgione, " Female portrait» Correggio, «St. Sebastian by Titian, The Lute Player by Caravaggio, The Return prodigal son"Rembrandt, "Lady in Blue" by Gainsborough. The museum has rich collections of paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Poussin, Titian, Veronese, Claude Lorrain and others.

7th place. London National Gallery.

It is one of the best collections of Western European painting, which contains paintings by almost all great artists, and also represents all schools of European painting. Today, the gallery houses about 2,500 paintings that date from the 13th to the 20th centuries. Feature of the exhibition: all paintings in the gallery are exhibited in chronological order. The following masterpieces are exhibited here: “The Raising of Lazarus” by Sebastiano del Piombo, “Venus and Adonis” by Titian, “The Rape of the Sabine Women” by Rubens, Canaletto’s landscape “The Stonecutter’s House”, “Saint George” by Tintoretto, “ Holy family"Titian, "The Holy Family" by Andrea del Sarto, "Woman Bathing in a Stream" by Rembrandt.

8th place. Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

The museum's unique collection, accumulated over centuries, contains many masterpieces of Dutch and world art. Here you can see the magnificent “Night Watch” by Rembrandt, several paintings by Vermeer, Van Dyck and Jan Steen. The museum has a rare collection of Asian art, an extensive collection of prints, drawings and classical photography.

9th place. Vasa Museum in Stockholm.

The museum ship Gustav Vasa (Vasa) was created around a Swedish ship, which became famous for its stupidity, as history claims. A very curious incident happened to it: it, being the royal flagship, sank after swimming only 1 mile! There have been many attempts to raise Vasa's ship. In the end, it was raised in 1961, restored for 30 years, and a museum was built around it in 1990. Today the exhibition presents objects raised from the bottom in different parts of the world's oceans.

10th place. National Anthropological Museum in Mexico City.

It houses a unique collection of archaeological and anthropological exhibits from the pre-Columbian era found in Mexico. This is evidence of the culture of the Mayans, Aztecs, Olmecs, Toltecs and other indigenous peoples of the American continent.
The museum includes 23 permanent exhibition halls. The most famous exhibit is the Aztec artifact, the “Sun Stone”, also called the Aztec calendar. The diameter of the stone circle is 3.35 m, thickness -1.22 m, it was found in the center of Mexico City in Zocalo Square in 1790.

Rounding out the ranking of the 25 best museums in the world are the National Gallery of Art in Washington (USA, District of Columbia), the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, the Terracotta Warriors and Qin Horse Museum in Xi'an (China), the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires and the New Museum. Zealand (Te Papa Tongarewa) in Wellington.

Let us remind you that the Travelers’ Choice awards are awarded to the best tourist attractions in the world based on the results of an analysis of millions of reviews and opinions of travelers. To determine the winners, an algorithm is used that takes into account the quality and quantity of reviews about museums in different countries world collected over the past 12 months.

Today there are more than 100,000 museums around the world, each of which is unique in its own way. However, there are the most famous museums the world, which all people interested in culture and art, traveling to many countries of the world, strive to visit. We bring to your attention ten of the most famous museums in the world, which represent very interesting places, revealing the secrets of history, and are also world-class attractions.

Louvre (Paris)

This French museum, according to experts, occupies a leading position among the most famous museums in the world. Its opening took place in 1793. Until that time, the museum building was a fortress that served as a residence for the kings of France. The Louvre is also one of the largest among art museums - the area occupied by the museum is 195,000 m2, of which 60,600 m2 are allocated for exhibition.

When you first visit the museum, you may get the impression of some confusion, but the organization of the exhibition is quite rational, so there is no difficulty in understanding it. To see the wonderful paintings housed in the museum, even a couple of days is unlikely to be enough, because the museum’s catalog currently contains 400,000 exhibits. For the convenience of visitors, the exhibition is divided into 7 large sections; exhibits can be found using special signs. Tourists find the local painting department incredibly impressive, where you can admire the works of Rubens, Rembrandt, Titian, Caravaggio, and here you can also see mysterious smile"Mona Lisa" created by Leonardo da Vinci.

Hermitage (St. Petersburg)

This museum, created in 1764, is a real treasure of Russia. Features the world's largest collection of paintings and archaeological finds. On this moment The Hermitage has almost 3,000,000 exhibits. The museum owes such an incredibly large collection to the personal collection of Empress Catherine. It covers history from the Stone Age to the present. Everyone who visits the Hermitage definitely strives to go to the Golden Room, where amazing gems. The Hermitage today consists of 5 majestic buildings (the main one among them is Winter Palace), located near the Neva embankment.

British Museum (London)

First opening its doors in 1753, it is undoubtedly considered one of the most famous museums in the world. In terms of area, it occupies an area that can be compared with 9 football fields. It features the largest collection of exhibits in the world.

The works of art collected here were brought from all continents of the world. Thousands of people were involved in the creation and development of this museum. The galleries here are dedicated to Greece, Egypt, the civilization of Rome, Africa, Asia and Europe of the Middle Ages. Every year 6,000,000 visitors come here to look at the museum’s exhibits. British museum also has other names - “Museum of Stolen Masterpieces” or “Museum of All Civilizations”, but both names are absolutely justified.

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)

New York's premier museum, founded in 1870, is one of the most famous in the world. During its existence, this museum has already changed its location twice, but now its location remains the same - it is located in Central Park, on Fifth Avenue. There are over 2,000,000 exhibits brought to the museum from all over the world - here you can see Islamic and European paintings, large collection weapons. The most popular room here is the American Decorative Arts room. In the main hall, art connoisseurs can contemplate the works of Raphael, Tintoretto, and Botticelli.

Uffizi Gallery (Florence)

This gallery among art museums is recognized as one of the most famous in the world. It is named after the Uffizi Square, where it is located. For those who admire the works of Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci, this place will be very interesting, because their creations are quite widely represented here. Also in this gallery is the painting “The Birth of Venus”, which was created by Botticelli.

Egyptian Museum (Cairo)

It is considered the most major museum, representing the art of Ancient Egypt. It is here that you can see a huge number of exhibits (over 120,000 specimens) dating back to the prehistoric period. The first time exhibits were exhibited in this place was in 1835. It was then that the Egyptian government made attempts to stop the looting of archaeological monuments and decided to put the people's property on public display. The museum building was built already in 1900.

Recognized as the largest in the world. Its exhibition includes 50,000 exhibits, which are housed in many halls. The number of halls here is 1400. To get around them all, you need to walk at least 7000 meters. This place houses 22 collections that allow you to enjoy the creations of the Etruscans and Egyptians, as well as objects contemporary art. Some of the main places of the museum are the Raphael Room and the Sistine Chapel, considered the shrine of the museum territory.

Prado Museum (Madrid)

Despite the fact that this museum has not collected such an impressive collection of works of fine art, its attendance is very high. Visitors are attracted here by the works of Goya, Murillo, and Velazquez. Particular attention is always paid to Rubens' "The Three Graces". The main specialization of the museum is paintings, but a special place is also given to coins, medals and decorative objects.

Located near the central part of Amsterdam. When visiting the capital of the Netherlands, guests are sure to visit this one of the most famous museums in the world. On one side of the museum there is a panoramic square, and on the other side it overlooks the city’s water canals. The museum's exhibition includes works by great Dutch artists, including masterpieces by Rembrandt.

Athens National Museum of Archeology

Represents the most big museum Greece. It's worth a visit to learn about the history. ancient Greece. Items from all over Greece that were found during archaeological research are collected here.

This incredible underwater museum features dozens of sculptures in life size used as artificial coral reefs for local flora and fauna.

2. Hermann Boerhaave Museum. City of Leiden, Netherlands

Before it became a museum dedicated to human mutation, 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. Momofuku Ando Instant Noodle Museum. Osaka city, Japan

5. Museum of Divorces. City of Zagreb, Croatia

Every element in this collection - be it Wedding Dress or even an ax - has its own history in the final stage of a failed relationship.

6. Museum of Bad Art. City of Beston, Massachusetts

This museum displays works famous artists, for which everything went wrong, as well as strange copies of paintings by other artists.

7. Paris Sewerage Museum. 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 in operation. It features many historical exhibits and not necessarily the theme of its name.

8. Mütter Museum. City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

This museum boasts hundreds of specimens of skulls and skeletons, demonstrating numerous pathologies in the human structure.

9. Museum of Dog Collars. City of Kent, England

This museum contains accessories for best friend man 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 could learn the whole truth hidden from them in the media regarding certain events related to the death or murder of people.” The museum does not conduct tours. Each visitor can explore everything on their own, 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, the French serial killer.

11. Vent Haven Museum. City of Fort Haven, Kentucky

This museum has an incredible collection of posters and photographs that describe the history of talking dolls. It is worth visiting only if you are not confused by the gaze of hundreds of dolls watching you from the very beginning to the end of your entire visit to the museum.

12. Museum of paintings "Cat 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 integral part 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. Winchester House. 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 misadventures (death only daughter soon after birth, relatively early death William) are related to the fact that the family is cursed with those killed by the rifle created by his father. In order to avoid further problems, a woman must build a special house in which spirits cannot harm her. The widow purchased this house and spent almost all her millions on its reconstruction.

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. Museum of Jurassic technology. City of Los Angeles, California

The name of the museum has nothing to do with dinosaurs. A whole collection of scientific and artistic rarities is presented here.

According to the head of the Smithsonian Institution, “museums such as this, unlike most others, are very important because they show the history of the development of scientific technology, thereby kindling 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 present them as genuine. Visitors have a lot to discuss among themselves.

17. Barney Smith Art Museum. City of San Antonio, Texas

Retired plumber Barney Smith has created more than 1,000 works of art on toilet lids. At first, for 10 years, he collected his works in his old garage, but when journalists learned about his collection and crowds of people began to come to him, the garage was rebuilt into a real museum.

Institutions that collect and carefully preserve objects of history, science, art of a particular country or people are always a priority for visiting for any self-respecting tourist. Of course, on vacation you can limit yourself only to beaches and shops, but a real traveler will definitely look into one or another museum if he really wants to “feel” new country and take away a piece of it as a keepsake, not only in a bag as a souvenir from the tray, but also deep in your soul.

In anticipation International Day museums BiletyPlus.ru introduces you to the smallest and largest museums on the planet.

The smallest museums in the world

If you think that to attract visitors you need to have grand premises, thousands of exhibits and world fame, we hasten to dissuade you. Small museums enjoy no less, and sometimes even greater fame among tourists, who are sometimes too lazy to spend whole days exploring huge collections. Yes, and I want something unusual. And what could be more unusual than the smallest museums in the world?

For example, “Baublyai”, in the town of Bijotai. The museum is located... in the hollow of an old huge oak tree! This tree, according to legend, is at least a thousand years old; it was this tree that Adam Mickiewicz sang in his famous poem, it is also on the city's coat of arms. A long time ago, oak served as an object of religious pagan cult, and in 1812 the tree was given new life, placing in its hollow the exhibits found during archaeological excavations. Entire exhibition local history museum(antique books and coins, ancient weapons and knightly ammunition, portraits of famous Lithuanians) is housed in a “room” with a diameter of only two meters. IN Lately The museum in oak is hidden under a glass cover for greater safety.

Or Museum - a miniature art gallery in Somerville the size of... a mailbox. The museum, measuring 25x20x40 cm, was invented by a local artist and placed on a popular city street in order to attract public attention to the problem of a shortage of exhibition space that people in the arts constantly face. In this gallery, behind solar-lit plexiglass, six miniature paintings, “entrance” is free for everyone. On grand opening gallery, the mayor of the city presented the creator with a mini-certificate “For a small contribution to art.”

Although some consider another museum to be the tiniest and most unusual in the world: a street “homeless” art museum created by an artist. The establishment consists of two plastic chairs, a booth with a small collection of items and the art director - a stuffed coyote named Florence. The artist himself sells tickets and communicates with visitors about art.

The largest museums in the world

If everything is more or less clear with small museums, then with big statistics comes to a dead end. How to measure them? By area, by the number of exhibits, by the richness of the exhibition, by the size of museum buildings, by the richness of the collections? Unclear. That’s why there are dozens of ratings circulating on the Internet, each of which claims to be the only true truth.

We will not break spears and will simply list several of the most grandiose and famous world “temples of the muses”, and you yourself decide which of them is the best.

Louvre

This museum occupies (just imagine!) more than 160,000 m2, and its collection includes about 400,000 exhibits. Central building The museum is an ancient royal palace (Palais du Louvre), and the exhibition is divided into seven huge parts, allowing to some extent systematize the wealth of the museum. And there is something to systematize: the Louvre collection includes art objects from a huge number of countries, times, peoples, making the museum a real center of artistic and spiritual heritage humanity.

It is believed that it will take the average tourist at least several weeks to get at least a superficial acquaintance with all the exhibits of the Louvre.

Vatican Museums

This is a huge complex of valuable collections and unique buildings in. It is estimated that to get around all its exhibits, you will have to walk seven kilometers. In terms of the number of works of art per number of inhabitants (or per unit area) it ranks first in the world.

Etruscan Museum, Egyptian, Belvedere, Pinakothek, Library, famous The Sistine Chapel... All these and many other Vatican institutions provide visitors with the opportunity to get acquainted with painting, sculpture, mosaics, frescoes, ancient manuscripts of religious and secular nature from all over the world.

Metropolitan

This is one of the largest and second most visited Art Museum of the World is located in New York () on the so-called Museum Mile, where the best museums in the country are concentrated. The Metropolitan opened to the public in the 19th century as a collection of three private collections, and today more than two million works of art can be found here in twenty departments. The collection is very diverse and contains exhibits from rock paintings Australian Aboriginals and medieval weapons of European knights to ritual objects of the inhabitants of Tibet and musical instruments ancient East.

We have listed just a few famous museums in the world. But there are also the Hermitage and the Tretyakov Gallery, which are beloved by many, the British Museum in, the Prado Museum and the Guggenheim Museum in, National Museum science and National Center arts, Rijksmuseum in ... An inquisitive tourist in any corner of the world will be able to find interesting and educational things. Travel as much as possible and learn the world, it's so cool!

BiletyPlus.ru is pleased to congratulate everyone on International Museum Day!