Promising to break the taboo of death through a series of fascinating (and eerie) exhibits, Singapore's Hell's Museum is certainly among the most unusual attractions we've ever set our eyes on. Read on to find out more about the strange, trippy museum, plus a whole host of other curious museums around the world.
With more than 1,000 colourful tombstones decorated in cartoonish drawings and witty poems, the Merry Cemetery in northwest Romania is no ordinary graveyard. Created by sculptor Dumitru Pop Tincu, these hand-carved epitaphs have evolved into a tradition for the villagers of Sãpânta in northern Romania, who have come to love this frank and down-to-earth take on death, thought to derive from the Dacian culture. It’s a 360-mile journey from the Romanian capital of Bucharest to this remote spot, but that doesn’t seem to deter the tourists who visit this bizarre open-air museum.
The brainchild of ex-lovers Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišic, the Museum of Broken Relationships started off as a travelling exhibition but now has a permanent home in Croatia’s capital city, in the beautiful Baroque Kulmer Palace. With an ever-growing collection of symbolic possessions and treasures donated by heart-broken contributors, you’ll find everything from wedding dresses and handcuffs to empowering letters. If you find yourself newly single and want to find some closure, this unique museum is always open to new stories.
Mermaid skeletons and mummified fairies are just a few of the bizarre exhibits you can enjoy in this tiny yet eccentric cocktail bar-cum-curiosity museum. Located in Hackney’s Mare Street in east London, the museum – that focuses on ‘curiosities, fine art and natural history’ – is the brainchild of ‘pataphysicist’ and author Viktor Wynd. And it takes visitors on a journey through the ‘innermost thoughts, dreams and demons’ of his mind. Think strange taxidermy, two-headed kittens and artwork made from human hair. We did warn you, it’s quite an unusual one.
If you want to see the world’s largest collection of er, penises, look no further than Iceland's Phallological Museum. Located in the capital city Reykjavík, this unique attraction houses more than 215 "penile parts" from almost every land and sea mammal found in the country. And we can safely say, it’s likely to be the only one of its kind on Earth. Phallic specimens range from the rogue polar bear to seven different kinds of seals and walrus. There's even a human organ among its collection...
Ever since he was filmed hovering over the Berlin Wall for his pop song Looking for Freedom in 1989, David Hasselhoff has become an icon in Germany. It’s no surprise then, that there’s a museum dedicated to the American actor known for his 1980s movie roles and trademark locks. Starting off as a tongue-in-cheek shrine at The Circus Hostel in Berlin, the collection includes everything from his Baywatch lifeguard uniform to Knight Rider memorabilia. The Hoff has even been known to visit his eponymous museum.
Love them or loathe them, the Fray Bentos brand is considered one of the most iconic food brands. And while boil-in-the-tin pies and puds might not be so popular today, there’s a whole museum dedicated to their makers. Located in the synonymous town in Uruguay, this former meatpacking factory was owned by German company Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company and first opened in 1859. Today, it’s a derelict time capsule of machinery and warehouses and has UNESCO World Heritage status.
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This highly interactive attraction is one of the most unique you’ll find in Washington DC’s world-class museum collection. It takes you on a journey through the history of espionage, bringing to life the world of famous spies and espionage techniques along the way. You can test your own spy skills across 17 physical and digital exhibitions and skill challenges, which includes crawling through an air duct, tough memory tests and cracking secret codes. You’ll be given an ID badge on arrival and uncover your top spy skills by the end of your mission.
The last thing you’d expect to find in the Australian outback is a movie museum. But this unique desert shrine dedicated to Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior) doesn’t seem so bizarre when you learn that the legendary action film was shot here. Located in the desert ghost town of Silverton, this quirky exhibit can’t be missed with its colourful shack in ode to the apocalyptic movie. It houses photos, props, costumes, collectables and replica vehicles which owner Adrian Bennett has collected over the years. Worth the dusty desert journey for die-hard fans.
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On a mission to highlight serious sanitation and health issues in India, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak set up the 'Museum of Toilets' in New Delhi. Tracing the 4,500-year-old world history of toilets, this unusual charity-led museum exhibits everything from a medieval WC and a loo that burns excrement, to a lavatory used by King Louis XIV.
For another quirky attraction dedicated to the humble lavvy, turn to the Toilet Seat Art Museum in Texas. Founded by ‘King of the Commode’, the late Barney Smith, this collection of 1,400-plus unused toilet seats grew over a period of 50 years in his garage in San Antonio. It was relocated to the Truck Yard restaurant before the retired plumber passed away, aged 98. This vibrant collection covers an array of themes from The Wizard of Oz and old licence plates to personal tributes from Barney’s own life.
From lake monsters and sea serpents to mermaids and yetis, cryptozoology is the study of hidden or unknown animals. And this oddball museum dedicated to the subject of ‘cryptids’ (or undiscovered creatures) in Portland, Maine is the only one of its kind in the world. Exhibiting one-of-a-kind zoological specimens and unique native art, it takes you on an eye-opening journey of cryptid sightings in history but also showcases recent discoveries such as the coelacanth and the megamouth shark.
Invented in August 1858 by Momofuku Ando, the instant noodle has finally been immortalised in an interactive museum. Exhibits include: The Birth of Chicken Ramen, a replica of Ando’s lab/shed; the Instant Noodles Tunnel, lined with hundreds of examples of noodle packaging; and the My CUPNOODLES Factory where visitors can create one of 5,460 flavour combinations.
The history and variety in canine neckwear may be more interesting than you might think and the Dog Collar Museum – the world’s largest public display of its kind – plays testament to that. Here, you’ll find over 130 rare dog collars, including 16th century German iron collars with fearsome spikes, ornate Baroque gilt collars and 20th century styles fashioned from tyres, beads and plastic. A large portion of the collection are here thanks to a donation that avid collector Mrs Gertrude Hunt made in 1977 in memory of her historian husband.
You won’t get a more dazzling museum than Amsterdam’s Electric Ladyland. Located in the capital city’s popular Jordaan neighbourhood, it’s been here since 1990 and is a showstopping exhibition of fluorescent art. As soon as they join the museum tour, visitors become a piece of ‘participatory art’ themselves and the tour includes fluorescent mineral demos where even the greyest stone dazzles in a neon display under different light wavelengths.
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You’ll need your snorkelling gear or a glass bottomed boat for this one as the 500-plus sculptures that comprise the MUSA in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula are found below the sea. Created by English sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor, the life-size sculptures that make up this extraordinary ocean museum in the waters off Cancun, Isla Mujeres and Punta Nizuc, were made using a special material to promote coral life. Since their instalment they’ve inspired all sorts of similar projects around the world.
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With a collection of over 1,200 original items from the Robert Opie Collection of old packaging and advertising, this one-of-a-kind museum in London’s Notting Hill is bound to get you feeling nostalgic. Unveiling the last 200 years of consumer culture, it showcases everything from 1890s-era Rimmel make-up to Captain Scarlet action figures and the original First World War Oxo cubes. Take a walk through the ‘time tunnel’ for a journey of consumer culture history from Victorian times up to the present day.
This barbershop-turned-museum is where thousands of US soldiers had their signature GI buzz cut before joining the army, including a certain rock star known as Elvis Presley. Located in Chaffee’s Historical District, the singer gave up his famed sideburns here in 1958 sparking headlines worldwide and in 2008, they opened it as a museum. With photos and documents charting the history of Fort Chaffee, it illustrates the area’s role as a prisoners of war base, refugee resettlement and movie shooting location.
Self-dubbed the ‘hoppiest place in the world’, this museum in California’s Altadena takes quirky to another level. In the private home of Candace Frazee and Steve Lubanski, this unusual attraction contains more than 43,000 bunny-related items – from antiques and toys to Bugs Bunny Christmas decorations – and it picked up a Guinness World Record in 1999 for its huge collection. It all started as ‘bunny’ was the nickname the couple called each other and became the theme for gifts between the pair. The rest, as they say, is history and the museum continues to grow by the day.
While many unusual museums have been replicated, this one in the old city of Baku in Azerbaijan is so niche, it could be the only one out there. A museum dedicated to tiny books, this charming library displays miniature tomes of all genres and ages, from a Russian book which is so small it requires a magnifying book to read it, to a 17th century copy of the Quran. Author and bibliophile Zarifa Salahova is the curator behind the curious collection and a large part came from a Ukrainian collector who donated his own miniature books in 2001.
Cat-lover Bob Meijer founded this unusual museum in memory of his headstrong ginger cat, John Pierpont Morgan. Housed in a classic first-floor house in Amsterdam, Kattenkabinet explores the role of our beloved felines in art and culture over the centuries. The collection includes cats in photographs, sculptures, posters, books and classic paintings (from Sal Meijer to Henriette Ronner-Knip) and visitors will very likely meet at least one of the resident kitties while they are here.
Self-dubbed as one of the most ‘improbable museums’, this offbeat exhibition, dedicated to our one and only yellow condiment, claims to be one of the most popular attractions in Wisconsin. It all began when founder Barry Levenson left his job as the state’s assistant attorney general in 1992 to open the museum. Today, it displays an impressive 6,090 mustards from all 50 states and more than 70 countries. The ‘King of Condiments’ also impresses with his range of antique tins, vintage adverts and popular tasting bar.
Born from the idea of improving people’s financial literacy, the Museum of Saving sets out to explore the topics of saving and investment in a unique and entertaining way. With visitors of all ages in mind, kids can interact with the mascot ants For and Mika and play fun money management games throughout. Meanwhile, teens and adults can enter the world of bonds and stocks in Smart Trader or play against three avatars in Risky City. Tours, videogames and apps all feature in their ‘edutainment’ approach and educational visits from students of all ages are welcomed.
Tucked behind Lucky Lizard Curios & Gifts in downtown Austin, the Museum of the Weird calls itself the strangest attraction in America. With exhibits of shrunken heads, giant lizards, mummies and a “feejee” or Fiji mermaid – a taxidermy monkey sewn together with a fish – we think that’s a fair description. Stuffed with endless oddities and home to a Chamber of Horrors, this off-the-wall museum owned by Steve Busti was inspired by the classic dime museums and cabinets of curiosities made popular by the likes of P. T. Barnum.
There was a time when the word ‘spam’ referred to dinner rather than unwanted emails. The Spam Museum harks back to that era and chronicles the history of the processed, pre-cooked canned meat from its introduction in 1937 by the Hormel Foods company. From its role in the Second World War, when it was an important part of soldiers’ diets, to Monty Python’s musical Spamalot, this unique museum offers interactive exhibits, tours with its ‘SPAMbassadors’ and, of course, samples of its famous luncheon meat.
Funerals, mourning and concepts of the afterlife are all topics covered in this curious museum in central Germany. A bit dark, maybe, but this intriguing attraction offers a fascinating glimpse at how the subject of death is treated so differently across cultures, going as far back in history as the 1st century. You might assume this is one for the adults, but the museum runs child-friendly workshops and has a special emphasis on introducing youngsters to the topic of death too.
With more than 3,000 industrial and everyday objects displayed and connected in freaky and never-before-seen ways, this museum may seem a little unnerving at first. But museum director Vlad Korneev claims that the various mannequins and body parts fixed to machinery and medical instruments is a way of sparking people’s interest in the everyday things we may not notice or understand. After opening in 2010, this wacky exhibition has lured in plenty of visitors who leave with myriad opinions on what it all means. This is one that’s open to interpretation.
Politician Imelda Marcos was known for her cruel dictatorship style and abuse of human rights. But she was also famed for her lavish spending, particularly on shoes. Fittingly located in Marikina, the ‘shoe capital of the Philippines’, this one-off museum offers a peek at some 800 pairs of shoes belonging to the former first lady as well as the footwear of other government officials, film stars and politicians. A former arsenal during the Philippines’ Spanish era – and a detention cell during the Filipino-American War – the building is considered an important part of the city’s heritage.
The topic of barbed wire may not be as dull as you first think. This unique museum in Texas says you might even ‘get hooked’ on the subject once you’ve walked through its doors. Located on Old Route 66, this humble exhibition charts the history of the so-called devil’s rope, which was first invented by Michael Kelly in 1868, and later adapted by ‘The Father of Barbed Wire’ Joseph Glidden of Illinois. From the evolution of the cowboy to the history of Old Route 66, this is an intriguing lesson on a what is now a multimillion-dollar business.
The garden machine industry is a fascinating one, according to this one-of-a-kind museum in Merseyside, northwest England. Owned by ex-racing champion Brian Radam, this quirky attraction, which forms part of Lawnmowerworld, packs all sorts of vintage lawnmowers and unique garden machinery into one characterful museum. Some of the machines on display have even been donated by the rich and famous with Princess Diana, Brian May and, of course, beloved TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh among the well-known names. Look out for the first solar-powered robot mower as well as the fastest lawnmower in the world.
If you’re a fan of sausage dogs, book yourself a trip to the city of Passau, on the German-Austrian border. With more than 4,500 exhibits, the Dachshund Museum – or Dackelmuseum in German – was carefully curated over 25 years by two former florists and claims to have the largest collection of dachshund memorabilia and toys. Inside the museum, off the city’s historical Residence Square, you can expect everything from wooden sculptures and porcelain sausage dog china, to stamps celebrating the canine symbol of Bavaria.
Hundreds of thousands of superhero, video game and comic book fans have been congregating in San Diego for the annual Comic-Con since the 1970s and now the city has finally got its own Comic-Con museum too. An ode to sci-fi, cosplay, TV and film, the museum has opened with six exhibits, one of which is a custom Pac-Man arcade and another features rare Batman props.
Want to delight your taste buds? Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie et du Vin, located in the foodie city of Dijon, is for you. This brand new museum, which opens in May 2022, is designed to immerse visitors in the world of French food and wine. Expect a range of cooking classes, wine tastings, a speciality bookstore and various exhibitions dedicated to the heritage and culture of French food.
Fairy-tale fans need look no further than H.C. Andersen Hus, a new museum dedicated to the famous Danish author located in his hometown of Odense. The 18,000-square-foot (1,672sqm) museum, which officially opened in April 2022, is home to an array of curiosities to entertain visitors of all ages. You can visit the historic yellow cottage where the author was born, discover award-winning art and walk through interactive light, sound and image-based installations, which are designed to evoke the themes of Andersen’s work.