Usually people visit museums to enjoy the beauty of masterpieces of art or learn about history, but the ten museums we want to tell you about can give you vivid nightmares. They display all sorts of objects that seem to be props from horror films - but, nevertheless, they are all quite real and were used, so to speak, for their intended purpose.
1. Museum of Death (Los Angeles, California, USA)
The Museum of Death in Los Angeles is a huge collection of works of art created by serial killers that will make even a person with nerves of iron shudder. On the walls of the museum you can see many photographs of shocking crime scenes and subsequent autopsies of unfortunate victims, and photographs of terrible accidents may make you never want to drive a car again.
The museum also has rooms filled with funeral paraphernalia and embalming items, photographs of various executions and exhibits recreating murder scenes. There is also a room dedicated exclusively to suicide.
Are you still not scared, even if you have examined all this? Then try watching a video that shows various deaths of absolutely real people, or pay attention to the severed head of Bluebeard from Paris.
2. Ventriloquist Museum (Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, USA)
Ventriloquist dummies may seem outdated. In addition, such items are often perceived as shoddy products, harkening back to old-time vaudeville or carnivals. But take a closer look and you will be scared.
Of course, the fact that the dolls complain about life and even seem to have personality is just a clever trick, but still there is something creepy about these “artificial people”. They tell jokes, roll their eyes, and seem to have an opinion on everything. Take a critical look away and it will seem to you that every mannequin harbors evil intent.
If even one such doll is already scary, then imagine the impression of 700 such exhibits - all the dolls are sitting in chairs and looking at you with frozen, empty eyes. The Ventriloquist Museum at Fort Mitchell is the only such museum in the world. Here you will find endless rows of wooden mannequins, whose eyes seem to follow your every move, as if in an attempt to hypnotize you and bend you to their will. One piece of advice: stay calm and try not to scream.
3. Museum of Mummies (Guanajuato, Mexico)
An extremely unusual and evocative museum can be visited in the Mexican city of Guanajuato. The exhibits include 111 mummified bodies of men, women and children - many of them open-mouthed in an eternal scream as they were buried alive.
All the bodies were buried during the cholera epidemic in 1833. Gradually, from 1865 to 1958, they were removed from their last burial place, since surviving relatives could not pay the tax for a place in the cemetery. This is how the museum of mummies appeared - tourists gave the cemetery workers a few pesos to look at the corpses stored in one of the cemetery buildings.
As you browse this macabre collection, you'll be able to see the world's smallest mummy - the fetus of a pregnant woman who fell victim to cholera. Many mummies will be wearing the same clothes they were wearing at the time of burial, while others will be naked or wearing only shoes. This interpretation of life after death is no laughing matter, needless to say.
4. Dupuytren Museum (Paris, France)
The exhibits of this Parisian museum are real examples of various deviations in medicine. The Dupuytren Museum was opened in 1835 by the famous Parisian anatomist and surgeon, who collected a collection of unborn babies with congenital diseases and deformities, skeletons and human organs. The grisly exhibition contains more than six thousand artifacts, including jars containing deformed human body parts, Siamese twins and babies born with exposed internal organs.
The museum also displays wax models of human heads with bizarre growths, cleft lips and birth defects that cannot be classified. Of course, there are also many glass jars in which the brains of aphasic patients float - it must be said that they are perfectly preserved in alcohol. This museum will certainly not leave even the most callous person indifferent.
5. Glor Psychiatric Museum (St. Joseph, Missouri, USA)
Upon entering the Glor Psychiatric Museum, you will immediately feel a sense of wariness and danger. The museum was opened in 1968 in a psychiatric hospital, which already in 1874 was the State Psychiatric House No. 2. Despair reigns in the corridors of this building. Perhaps these are the long-silenced cries of those who lived within these walls and often underwent unusual and often painful procedures to cure their “madness.”
Imagine that someone was imprisoned in a giant wheel - an enlarged version of the wheel that is often found in hamster cages: patients were forced to run in such a wheel for 48 hours at a time - this was necessary to tire them out. Other patients were prescribed a "tranquilizer chair" in which incisions were made on their bodies to allow bloodletting. Sometimes people underwent this procedure every day for six months because doctors believed that the cause of madness was excess blood flow to the brain. Still others were dipped into vats of ice water to induce shock - for medicinal purposes, of course.
During a visit to the museum, you can see all this and much more: barbaric methods previously used in psychiatry, tools and equipment for treating the mentally ill, as well as three-dimensional displays recreating the madness that happened here before, and mannequins with wandering smiles.
In addition, the exhibits include gruesome art created by patients and an elaborate display of objects recovered from the stomach of one madman: 453 nails, 105 hairpins, 115 pins and countless assorted nails, screws, buttons, hooks, snaps and needles.
You know, no matter how difficult your life is, after visiting this museum it begins to seem that someone else had it much worse.
6. “Mother” Museum (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)
The "Mother" Museum houses samples of medical pathologies and anomalies. The museum opened its doors to visitors in 1858. Among its exhibits are the real brains of murderers and epileptics, walls of skulls, on each of which hangs a plaque describing the death of the former owner, a plaster cast of the infamous Siamese twins Chang and Eng and their liver preserved in alcohol - one for two, as well as the skeleton of a giant 7. 6 meters tall.
As in the Dupuytren Museum in Paris, there are jars with creatures floating in them that, although they were actually human, look like aliens from horror films, as well as photographs of unfortunate people with the most unusual diseases and bodily deformities. Try not to feel nauseated at the sight of a 2.7-meter human colon, which at the time of removal from the body contained more than 18 kg of feces - the organ belonged to an actor who performed under the pseudonym The Great Balloon.
It seems that the “Mother” Museum contains the most nauseating exhibits from all over the world - and so it is.
7. Lombroso Museum of Criminal Anthropology (Turin, Italy)
The Italian Museum of Anthropology, founded in 1898 by criminal physiognomist Cesare Lombroso, has more than 400 human skulls on display. Lombroso was obsessed with the idea that deviant behavior and criminal tendencies were related to the shape and size of the skull. He collected and classified the skulls of soldiers, civilians, criminals and madmen.
Lombroso's collection also contains full-size skeletons, brains, autopsy images, antique tools and weapons used in real-life crimes. The air of this place is filled with fear. And if that’s not enough for you, “meet” the head of Dr. Lombroso in person - it is perfectly preserved in a glass chamber.
8. Medieval Museum of Torture (San Gimignano, Italy)
Are you wondering why the Middle Ages are often called the Dark Ages? Ready to learn more about human sadism and see how truly cruel people can act under the guise of "justice"? Visit the Museum of Medieval Torture in the Italian town of San Gimignano - there you will see a collection of more than 100 instruments created to torture some people with others.
The museum is located in the Devil's Tower, built back in the 13th century - you can almost hear the groans of the victims who were tortured in this place many centuries ago. You will see the guillotine, devilish stands for stretching the victim's body, the "Spanish spider" used to tear the breasts of unfaithful wives from the body, and the "heretic's fork" - a device with razor-sharp thorns that was placed under the victim's chin to prevent she should fall asleep.
Also on display here is the Maiden of Nuremberg - a sarcophagus with blades on the door, which pierced the still living victim inside when the sarcophagus was closed. This museum not only shows the true darkness of the Middle Ages, but also exposes the abyss of darkness in human souls.
10. Catacombs of the Capuchins (Palermo, Italy)
Palermo is home to one of the most creepy burials - this museum is located under one of the ancient buildings at the monastery cemetery. The Capuchin Catacombs are a collection of more than eight thousand mummified human bodies, all of whom died between the 17th and 18th centuries.
The bodies lie on the floor, hanging on the walls in the cells of the underground labyrinth of the city where they lived several centuries ago. Dusty and gray, the corpses are dressed in the best clothes they had in life. Many of the dead, while alive, left instructions that at a certain time the decayed clothes should be replaced with new ones.
Empty eye sockets and mouths gaping in an eerie smile in the dim light of the catacombs seem to mock visitors. The dead are divided according to the class and status they occupied in life: men are kept separate from women and children, while priests, monks, professors and even maidens have their own quarters.
Only the bravest of us will dare to visit such museums. We present to your attention the most creepy and scary museums from around the world.
Dupuytren Museum (Paris, France).
Something like our St. Petersburg Kunstkamera. Here are real examples of various deviations in medicine. The museum was opened in 1835 by a Parisian anatomist and surgeon, who collected a collection of unborn babies with various diseases and deformities, skeletons and human organs, jars with deformed parts of human bodies, Siamese twins and babies born with exposed internal organs.
This museum contains more than 6 thousand exhibits. Fear and that's it. This place will not leave even the most callous person indifferent.
Museum of Mummies (Guanajuato, Mexico).
The exhibits here include 111 mummified bodies of men, women and children - many of them with their mouths open in eternal screams as they were buried alive.
All the bodies were buried during the cholera epidemic in 1833. And in the period from 1865 to 1958, they were removed from burial places, since surviving relatives could not pay the tax for a place in the cemetery. This is how the museum of mummies appeared. Here you can see the smallest mummy in the world - this is the fetus of a pregnant woman who became a victim of cholera. There is no time for laughter and entertainment in this museum.
Glor Psychiatric Museum (St. Joseph, Missouri, USA).
The museum was opened in 1968 in a psychiatric hospital. There is desperation in the corridors of this building. These are probably the long-silenced cries of those who lived within these walls and often underwent unusual and often painful procedures.
Here you can see barbaric methods of treatment previously used in psychiatry, tools and equipment for treating the mentally ill, and also three-dimensional displays recreating the madness that happened here earlier. The spectacle is not for the faint of heart.
Museum of Death (Los Angeles, California, USA).
This museum houses a huge collection of art created by serial killers. The walls are filled with photographs of shocking crime scenes and autopsies of victims.
There are also rooms dedicated exclusively to suicide, as well as rooms filled with funeral paraphernalia and embalming items, photographs of various executions and exhibits recreating murder scenes.
Mutter Museum of Medical History (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA).
This museum houses specimens of medical pathologies and anomalies. The museum opened in 1858. The real brains of murderers and epileptics are kept here, walls of skulls, on each of which there is a sign describing the death of the former owner.
As in the Dupuytren Museum in Paris, there are jars with creatures floating in them that, although they were actually human, look like aliens from horror films, as well as photographs of unfortunates with the most unusual diseases and bodily deformities. It seems that the most vile exhibits from all over the world are collected here. Perhaps this is true.
Ventriloquist Museum (Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, USA).
In this place, the mannequins literally complain about life and seem ready to come to life at any moment. It's really just a neat trick, but there's still something creepy about these strange dolls. They tell jokes, roll their eyes, and each of them seems to harbor malicious intent.
About 700 of these weirdos sit in chairs and look at visitors with frozen, empty eyes. This museum is one of a kind.
Museum of Torture (San Gimignano, Italy).
Here is a collection of over 100 tools designed to torture some people with others. The museum is located in the Devil's Tower, built in the 13th century. They say that the groans of victims who were tortured in this place many centuries ago can still be heard here.
Not only about the attributes of burial culture - wreaths, coffins - but also about death itself is told in this museum with all the Hollywood special effects and not sparing visitors. Here you can see photos of bloody incidents, executions, portraits of serial killers, and hear the “sounds of death.” Among the real “deadly” exhibits is the embalmed head of serial maniac Henri Landru, nicknamed Bluebeard, who killed women, and the bed of a member of the Gates of Heaven cult, on which human sacrifices were performed. A separate hall of the museum is dedicated to suicide and suicides. Those whose nerves allow it can watch photos and even videos of autopsies of bodies in the morgue and embalming equipment. The museum's motto is: "We all die."
Museum of Lies - Germany, Kuritz
Everything in this museum is “false” - from the building itself, which pretends to be an old mansion, to Stalin’s mop on display.German artist Reinhard Zabka, who calls himself a descendant of Baron Munchausen (of course, he's lying!) arranged 10 rooms, closely packed with various objects, for his exhibition of lies. It is not the originals that are valuable here, but the fakes. Among the fake exhibits are a radio from the sunken Titanic, Hitler's false mustache and much more - go, read and don't believe it. Visitors are urged not to believe their eyes and are set up to lie from the very entrance: they are offered to try a piece of plastic cake and wash it down with a healing collection of herbs for all diseases.
Museum of the Human Body - Holland, Uchshuis
The museum, which opened in 2008, is located inside a giant 35-meter figure of a seated man. This figure and the adjacent building are located on the highway between Amsterdam and The Hague. The tour inside the human body takes just under an hour. During this time, visitors find themselves in all parts of the human body, starting with the legs, moving higher and higher along the escalators. Here, in an enlarged size, muscles, bones, heart, kidneys, lungs, digestive organs, eyes, ears and brain are visible. Here they show what happens inside a person, when he sneezes, when he sleeps, how hair grows, how the brain and human receptors work.
Hair Museum - Türkiye, Coppadocia
Turkish potter Chez collected the hair of thousands of women in his basement museum under a pottery store. It all started with one thing: leaving the city more than 30 years ago, Chez’s beloved woman named Galipa left him a lock of hair as a souvenir. After that, women began to flock here and for some reason leave strands of their hair with notes with phone numbers and addresses. Chaz's collection already includes more than 16 thousand samples of women's hair.
Snowflake Museum - Japan, Hokkaido
In the “snowy” region of Japan - on the island of Hokkaido - there is a museum of snowflakes, organized by physicist Nakaya Ukichiro. It shows huge photographs of snowflakes of all shapes and types, talks about the pathsnow crystals to the ground and about the uniqueness of each one, about the ultrasound that, it turns out, is emitted by every snowflake falling into the water. They will also tell you what influences the shape of a falling snowflake: for example, if it encounters a flow of colder air, its crystalline stretches into a column; if it is warmer, plates are formed, which always have a hexagonal shape.
Toilet Museum - India, Delhi
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Spicy exhibits - panties and bras of show business stars and politicians - and necessarily second-hand ones, were collected in his museum by the Belgian artist Jacques Buqua. He arranges the most valuable exhibits for him - for example, the underpants of ex-French President Nicolas Sarkozy - into collages. He is very proud to have in his collection of elegant panties the Minister of Finance of Belgium and the Belgian female politician Fadila Lanaan.
In Los Angeles, on Hollywood Boulevard, a sister of the Novosibirsk museum, the American Museum of Death, is successfully operating. Today it is one of the most famous museums in the world, where hundreds of thousands of tourists come every year.
It was founded by J.D. Haley and Kathy Schultz. They explained the desire to create such an unusual museum by saying that it is time for a person to learn to value his life. And this cannot be done 100% if you do not look beyond life. Thus, the Museum of Death was originally opened in 1995 in San Diego, California. Previously, the building belonged to the famous bailiff Wyatt Earp, who killed prisoners. And in 1995, a morgue was located there.
Here is a short list of American museum exhibits:
- a large collection of real photographs depicting the moment of execution;
- accident results;
- the interior of not the cleanest morgues in the world;
- photographs of the crimes of maniacs and serial killers (fans of “Dexter” will be delighted), among which you can see photographs of the bloody massacres of the famous American criminal Charles Manson;
- a reconstruction of the cult suicide called "Heaven's Gate", which occurred in 1997;
- photographs from the morgue showing the dismembered body of a young girl, Elizabeth Short, known as the Black Dahlia (her murder became one of the most mysterious crimes committed in the United States);
- "Thanatron" or "Death Machine", a euthanasia machine created by Jack Kevorkian ("Doctor Death");
- the head of the serial killer “Bluebeard” or Henri Landru, severed by guillotine.
The museum is divided into several rooms. In some you can see children's coffins from different eras, and in others - letters and illustrations that previously belonged to bloody serial killers. The Museum of Death often films episodes in the morgue and autopsy processes. A terrifying video called “Faces of Death” (1993) was also filmed here, as well as a video for The Heaven’s Gate Cult (2008). Next to the museum there is a souvenir shop where every visitor can purchase T-shirts, windbreakers, and magnets as souvenirs , bags, wallets with museum symbols. Also, many come here to buy the board game “Serial Killer”, where one of the players is a killer, and everyone else is his victim.
