Model villages have been delighting visitors for decades with their detailed replicas of the world's greatest landmarks. We've rounded up some of the best miniature villages around the globe, including everything from a diminutive Stonehenge to a small-scale Venice. This tiny tourist trail will have you hooked.
Located a short drive west of Colorado's capital Denver, Tiny Town boasts scenic pine-forest surrounds that are almost as impressive as the attraction itself. Tiny Town started life as 'Turnerville' in 1915 – it was built on the Denver-Leadville Stage Coach Station by George Turner, who wanted to entertain his young daughter. By the 1920s, the attraction was known as Tiny Town, and despite being hit with floods, fires and more over the decades, it continues to live on today.
On top of Tiny Town's pocket-size buildings, the railway is another huge draw. Depending on the day, visitors can ride on one of the two real steam engines, or the attraction's Rio Grande F7 diesel replica, exploring parts of the park that wouldn't be accessible otherwise. A family lunch in the designated picnic area is the perfect way to round off your visit.
Miniature Railroad & Village's journey began in 1919, when a man named Charles Bowdish of Brookville built a holiday display on the second floor of his house. This moved to the Buhl Planetarium in 1954, before being relocated to its final home in the Carnegie Science Center – one of four Carnegie Museums in the leafy city of Pittsburgh – in 1992.
There's a long list of things to marvel at here. The indoor miniature village includes 105 animations, more than 250,000 trees, 85 little automobiles and 23,000 fans in the replica Forbes Field baseball stadium (pictured). New models are added to the village every season, this year including ten tiny Taylor Swift figurines dressed according to the ten albums covered on the singer's Eras tour.
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Located on the grounds of St Bernard Abbey in Alabama's Cullman county, Ave Maria Grotto is the brainchild of Brother Joseph Zoettl, one of the abbey's monks. Zoettl crafted 125 small structures, using concrete and unwanted donated materials such as costume jewellery, between 1912 and 1958. He was a voracious reader and his creations were inspired by historical texts and readings from the bible.
Among the many religious landmarks and biblical structures fashioned by Zoettl are miniatures of France's Lourdes Basilica Church and Rome's St Peter's Basilica. He also created a 'Jerusalem in miniature', plus versions of the Alamo, a religious and civic building in Texas, and Noah's Ark.
Located within the Fairmont Empress Hotel overlooking Victoria's picturesque Inner Harbour, Miniature World bills itself 'The Greatest Little Show on Earth'. And it's a fitting description for this popular attraction in British Columbia's capital, which has more than 85 exciting miniature dioramas and displays to enjoy.
Among the exhibits visitors can get lost in are The World of Dickens (pictured), Camelot, Olde London Town, Frontierland, Swiss Family Robinson and the Great Canadian Railway. The World of Dollhouses is home to two of the world's largest dollhouses (dating to around 1880), each boasting more than 50 rooms finished with stunning attention to detail.
Located in the Buckinghamshire town of Beaconsfield, Bekonscot touts itself as the world’s oldest and original model village. Opened for the first time in 1929, it was the vision of local resident Roland Callingham. Today the village is still a living embodiment of 1930s England and is comprised of six little towns as well as a huge model railway.
In total, the village boasts over 200 buildings, 3,000 inhabitants,1,000 animals and hundreds of vehicles. Each mini town has its own distinct character, villagers and landmarks, and visitors will spot everything from coal mines to aerodromes. Also to be enjoyed are the village's extensive gardens, featuring more than 3,000 shrubs and trees trimmed down to be to the same scale as the village buildings.
Cockington is the name of a quaint English village located in Torquay, Devon and after a visit there during a holiday in 1972, the Sarah family were keen to bring a little slice of England home. This is how the award-winning attraction of Cockington Green Gardens was born. Set within beautifully landscaped gardens in Australia's capital city, Cockington now features a striking display of miniature buildings representing places around the world.
Today the attraction is divided into the "Original" and "International" displays. The former includes a village cricket scene, a football pitch and stadium, mock Tudor-era buildings, a beautiful country mansion featuring a Queen-Anne facade and landmarks such as Stonehenge (pictured). In the latter, visitors can find a replica of the colourful El Caminito ("little walkway") in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires, and a model of Wheeler's Hut, a traditional structure in Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales.
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Located within Mini Mundi, an amusement park and indoor play area, this model village was originally commissioned by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, after the real city of Walcheren was damaged in WWII, then again in a 1944 flood. The model town was constructed in the 1950s by 600 volunteers. The creators painstakingly replicated the city of Walcheren’s buildings, and it was originally designed to stand for three months. However, it proved so popular that scores of visitors continue to visit the attraction to this day.
Visitors will be able to see a host of Walcheren’s historic spots and structures, from Vlissingen Boulevard to the Lange Jan Abbey Tower, as well as charming miniature homes, windmills and boats. Sunken pathways throughout the village are designed to give visitors the best vantage point from which to see the model buildings.
Located in the Devon resort town of Torquay, Babbacombe was first opened in 1963 by creator Tom Dobbins, a Southport man who dreamed of designing one of the finest model villages in the country. This was his second project; his first was opened in his hometown in 1956 and proved to be a great success. Babbacombe portrays English life and culture over the last 60 years through its 413 miniature buildings and four acres of award-winning gardens.
Visitors can marvel at intricate houses – including the 'Celebrity Mansion' pictured – stately homes, factories, shops and entertainment venues dating from the medieval to Victorian eras. There are also railways, well-known mini monuments such as Stonehenge and 13,000 miniature people who call the model village home.
Opened in 2003, Miniaturk describes itself as "Turkey's showcase". The miniature village, which spreads over more than 600,000 square feet (55,740sqm), captures the country's rich heritage, and the influence of many successive empires, from the Byzantine to the Ottoman empires.
Miniaturk is home to a total of 134 models – 62 from Istanbul, 60 from Anatolia and 13 from Ottoman territory outside of Turkey. The structures include two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the Temple of Artemis and the Halicarnassus Mausoleum. Visitors will also view mosques, churches, synagogues, palaces, mansions, obelisks, monuments and more during their spell at this amazing model village.
Frederik Braun was visiting the city of Zurich, Switzerland in 2000 when a model-railway shop captured his attention and evoked fond childhood memories. Calling his twin brother Gerrit, Frederik announced, "We are going to build the world’s largest model railway" – and that's exactly what they did. Business partner Stephan Hertz also hopped on board to help Miniatur Wunderland open its doors in 2001, with an initial three themed worlds and an on-trend location in Hamburg's warehouse district.
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Today Miniatur Wunderland boasts 1,040 trains running along more than 50,000 feet (15,000m) of track. There's also a whole host of themed worlds on offer. Explore Scandinavia, Venice (pictured), the USA, Monaco and Provence, as well as the 1,614-square-foot (150sqm) Knuffingen Airport, featuring 45 different aircraft.
Located at the foot of the Atomium – a landmark structure in Brussels composed of striking metallic spheres – Mini-Europe was inaugurated by Prince Philip of Belgium in 1989, and now attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors per year. The model village features a total of 350 models and animation sites, spanning 80 world cities.
The Grand-Place in Brussels, Athens' Acropolis, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and Copenhagen's photogenic Nyhavn waterfront (pictured) are just some of the standout landmarks from the continent that feature at Mini-Europe. There are also interactive scenes such as the eruption of Vesuvius and the fall of the Berlin Wall for visitors to enjoy.
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The biggest indoor modelling attraction in the UK, Wroxham Miniature Worlds is an amazing feat of engineering on a tiny scale. It's run by a small but dedicated team, who kicked off this one-of-a-kind project in 2011. Wroxham now stretches across more than 10,000 square feet (929sqm) and is also home to some of the largest model railways in the world.
The attraction is divided up into a number of zones, which include displays such as the European Railway Layout (pictured), with its mountains and ornate castle, and the Japanese Railway Layout, finished with a Shinto temple. There's also a whole city made from Lego bricks, model boat displays and model railways in various scales.
In 1958 German man Otto Hoppner opened the Bavarian-style Hotel Ritta Hoppner in the Brazilian mountain resort town of Gramado. In an effort to keep his grandchildren entertained, he also built a doll house, a collection of castles and some miniature trains in the hotel's gardens. Eventually this morphed into the open-air mini city that continues to enthrall visitors to this day.
Mini Mundo is home to little replicas of tourist attractions around the globe and Brazil itself, including the Sao Francisco de Assis Church in Ouro Preto and the Museum of Ipiranga in Sao Paulo. Visitors will also delight in the railways, castles, buses and restaurants, as well as the 2,500 inhabitants "brought to life" as part of realistic, everyday scenes.
Begun in 1985 as part of a research project, Mini Siam now covers 499,445 square feet (46,400sqm), and is divided into two distinct areas by a small "river". Visitors can explore Mini Siam and Mini Europe (which actually includes the rest of the globe), home to almost 100 replicas of famous sites from around the world.
Set in manicured grounds behind the Pattaya Boxing World stadium, the park hosts world-renowned attractions in miniature, including Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa (pictured), the Eiffel Tower and L’arc de Triomphe in Paris, and Beijing’s Temple of Heaven (Tian Tan). Visitors can also marvel at prominent landmarks from Thailand including the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Bridge over the River Kwai.