It can, I’ll find out later, when I’ll confidently step into Marius Zavadskis‘ forest carousel (a steel sculpture misspelled, whether accidentally or brilliantly, as Carousal – a drinking bout), and spin in it, like a hamster. An art that doesn’t take itself too seriously quickly peels you down to your infant layers, where remaining solemn would simply be absurd.

The joyful kid with a stylized mustache (Su Ūsais or With Moustaches) is a work by Evaldas Pauza, a Lithuanian sculptor known for his surreal style and comic twists, also visible in other whimsy bronzes scattered among dandelions on this grassy hill. There is a calm Sitting Policeman, a theatrical Pinocchio whose pointy nose couldn’t escape statue rubbing, and Gintarė or Electricity, a girl experimenting with an electrified balloon and her own braid.

Clustered in this outdoor museum, the artworks stand around the Monument of the Center of Europe, a geographic clock created by the little scientist’s namesake and founder of Europos Parkas – Gintaras Karosas. Placing the plaques indicating distances of European capitals to the central pyramid, this visionary artist created the Park of Europe, uniting the continent in art, as one of its most quietly extraordinary cultural destinations.

If you decide to extend your Europos Parkas visit in Kaunas, make sure to visit another unique institution – the Devils' Museum. 

What Is Europos Parkas?

Not to be confused with Europa-Park, Germany‘s largest theme park, Europos Parkas is a permanent open-air museum of modern and contemporary art established in 1991, some 17 kilometers north of Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania.

The total weight of the Europos Parkas collection amounts to 1,000 tons of stone, wood, concrete, and other materials

Its founding concept is both simple and wonderfully strange: in 1989, the French National Geographic Institute calculated the geographic center of the European continent. The result landed in Lithuania, in a quiet forested area near the village of Girija.

Two years later, some 10 kilometers away, the Lithuanian sculptor Gintaras Karosas conceived a gallery-style park. Spreading over 55 hectares, Europos Parkas exhibits large-scale sculptures, landscape installations, and conceptual works woven into a natural setting of hills, woodland, and springs. It was imagined as a museum built into nature, a space where art could freely breathe, weather, age, and interact with the environment.

The displayed artworks range from intimate pieces that occupy just a square meter to sprawling giants covering thousands of square meters. Someone calculated the total weight of the collection, and it amounts to approximately 1,000 tons of stone, wood, concrete, and other materials.

One of the defining features of the art at Europos Parkas is its interactive nature. Many of the installations encourage visitors to engage with them in a tactile and experiential way. For example, some sculptures invite visitors to touch, climb, or even sit on them, creating a more intimate connection between the viewer and the artwork. This hands-on approach not only makes the art more accessible but also enhances the overall experience of visiting the park.

Every year, more than 60 thousand people come to explore this extraordinary Lithuanian museum.

The Founder’s Story – Ambition in the Face of Empire

The backstory of the sculpture park near Vilnius is inseparable from the story of its founder, and it is worth telling properly.

Gintaras Karosas was born on 25 June 1968 in one of the largest collective garden districts of Vilnius – Kryžiokai. As a teenager, he was already exhibiting his own graphic work. By 19, while studying sculpture at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, he had found a wooded site outside the city and become convinced it was the right place for something extraordinary. He began landscaping it by hand – cutting trees, clearing undergrowth – on territory that technically wasn’t his.

Starting such a project during the Soviet era, when the state owned the land and was discouraging international connections through art, was a bureaucratic nightmare. Karosas petitioned for years, only to get expelled from the Academy. After the new director reinstated his student status, the ambitious young man was eventually granted a small plot of undeveloped land. He worked on it alone for the first few years.

Then history intervened in his favor. In 1990, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to reclaim independence. In 1991, the year the USSR formally collapsed, the first sculpture, Symbol of Europos Parkas, was placed in a clearing ringed by oak trees. The museum grew alongside a free nation.

By 1996, American conceptual artist Dennis Oppenheim had contributed his work Chair/Pool, and the international art world began to pay attention.

In 2001, Karosas’s own sculpture was recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records. In 2024, the park was inscribed on Lithuania’s Register of Immovable Cultural Properties.

What began as one young man’s stubborn dream is now a permanent part of the nation’s cultural heritage.

The Collection – A Forest Full of Phantoms

As you walk through the site in silence, broken only by birds and the occasional crunch of gravel underfoot, you realize you are not alone. The forest phantoms hiding behind every corner don’t quite belong there, yet feel strangely at home. The breadth of the Europos Parkas collection is remarkable.

Still, it is not a manicured sculpture garden with clear sightlines to the next work. It is, first and most insistently, a forest. The paths turn to dirt almost immediately after the entrance. The 120-odd works by artists from 35 countries don’t announce themselves; they appear when they appear, sometimes with grand drama, sometimes so quietly that you’ve walked past before registering what you’ve seen.

Each work was sited by Karosas to interact with its specific surroundings: the light through the canopy, the proximity of a spring, the slope of the land. As seasons shift, so do the sculptures. Leaves fall, moss claims its territory, shadows migrate. The park never looks exactly the same twice, which means there is no wrong time to visit and no single definitive version of it to have seen.

The artists are not minor figures. Magdalena Abakanowicz. Sol LeWitt. Dennis Oppenheim. Beverly Pepper. Sasson Soffer. Ales Vesely. The list runs across five continents and several decades of art history.

Since the early 1990s, the park has hosted international sculpture symposiums, bringing artists on-site to create works specifically for this environment. These artworks weren’t just placed here; they were conceived with this landscape and existing pieces in mind.

5 TIPS FOR MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR VISIT

1. Wear proper shoes. Paths are natural and unpaved beyond the entrance. Wear trainers or walking shoes that accept mud without complaint. Don't wear anything you'd be upset to find decorated with forest.

2. Download the map beforehand. Or download the Europos Parkas app. Without following a suggested route, it's easy to double back or miss works entirely – the grounds are large and not always intuitively signposted. Then again, at a place like this, sometimes the best moments happen when you let yourself get a little lost.

3. Choose your season deliberately. Spring brings wildflowers, fresh greenery, and soft light. Autumn transforms the park into something more melancholic and atmospheric, which suits many of the more reflective works. Summer sees the most visitors; arriving early guarantees a quieter experience. Winters are more minimal, sometimes stark, covering the sculptures with a blanket of snow.

4. Don't rush. The best encounters happen when you stop following the route and sit with a piece for a few minutes.

5. Combine your visit. Nearby Lake Balsys is accessible by the same bus line and offers a peaceful complement to the art. The 18th-century Verkiai Palace, a former residence of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, is also on the road back to Vilnius. If you have a car, the official Geographic Center of Europe monument in Purnuškes is a free and worthwhile addition. Visiting these places is one of the best things to do near Vilnius.

Must-See Works at Europos Parkas

What to see at Europos Parkas? It’s a lot, of course. But in the center of Europe, some works are especially worth stopping for. These are the park highlights that will haunt your camera roll.

LNK Infotree – Gintaras Karosas

The park’s most famous work is a 2001 Guinness World Record holder, officially the largest art installation made from television sets. A 700-meter labyrinth with the outline of a tree originally incorporated 2,903 TVs. Later, Lithuanians donated 600 more small screens, which were also included in the walls of the TV graveyard spreading over 3,135 square meters.

Among these electronic boxes, instrumentalized to colonize people’s minds, household by household, lay a toppled statue of Vladimir Lenin, a symbol of Soviet ideology. Walking through the maze of stacked, mute screens, their propaganda power disabled, must’ve been a genuinely thought-provoking experience.

Over the years, due to weather and human intervention, the LNK Infotree has mostly deteriorated, the majority of TV sets were recycled, and only a restored fragment is currently on display. Some visitors find this anticlimactic. I found it oddly appropriate: there is something fitting about a monument to Soviet decay that is being decomposed itself.

Double Negative Pyramid – Sol LeWitt

Sol LeWitt‘s geometric minimalist structure from 1997 sits in the landscape with quiet authority. The central figure of the minimal and conceptual art movements in the 1960s, who believed the idea behind a work was the work itself, delivered a work made from concrete blocks, reaching almost six meters in height and twelve meters in width.

The iconic American artist asks the viewer to move around the Double Negative Pyramid, to see it change, not just because of the perspective. The falling shadows and the play of light, even in the pyramid’s image mirrored in the pond, contribute to a constant shift in perception.

Space of Unknown Growth – Magdalena Abakanowicz

Despite crossing the Iron Curtain for numerous exhibitions that built her international reputation, the artist Magdalena Abakanowicz never managed to establish a sculpture park in her native Poland, another place controlled by the USSR. The godmother of the installation art, instead, became one of Europos Parkas’s most committed ambassadors.

In 1998, what was planned to be just four of her ‘abakan’ eggs became a nest of 22 concrete ovoid forms, the largest one weighing over a dozen tons. These massive brooding boulders are a testament to the park’s ambition to host artists of genuine international stature.

PRACTICAL VISITOR INFORMATION

Address: Europos Parko g. 300, Joneikiškės, Vilniaus r., LT-15143

Working hours: Open daily from 10 am to sunset. Last entry in summer at 7 pm; in winter at 4 pm.

Admission: You can book Europos Parkas tickets on Klook or Tiqets. An adult ticket costs €12. Student, senior, disabled, child, and family discounts available. Free admission for pre-schoolers accompanied by parents. Dogs are welcome, too. If you want to combine your Europos Parkas visit with Liubavas Manor, another museum founded by Gintaras Karosas, you can do it all for €17.

On-site facilities: Restoranas restaurant and café in an old apple orchard is open 11 am – 10 pm. Booking ahead is recommended for meals. The museum gift shop offers a variety of art-related merchandise and publications, souvenirs, and postcards. You can send them via their very own post office.

How long to allow: The park offers different mapped routes; the shortest can be completed in 60 minutes, though a full visit takes 2-3 hours or more, especially if you'll be taking a lot of photos of Europos Parkas attractions.

Where to stay: For lodging options close to Europos Parkas, consider booking this villa with a sauna or this garden suite near the lakes. For those who prefer the luxury of staying in Vilnius Old Town, you can't go wrong with the historic Stikliai Hotel or the design-focused Hotel Pacai. Those who want a well-rated bed without a mortgage can check out Corner Hotel and Somnia Apartments.

Getting there from Vilnius

By public bus: Take bus no. 6 from the city center, then transfer to bus no. 66 at Giedraičių st. Walk from Skirgiškės station. The journey takes approximately 90 minutes.

By bike: Even if you can rent a bicycle directly at the park, you can also do it in the center of Vilnius (this option costs €19 for a day) and cycle to Europos Parkas. The ride is approximately 20 kilometers, often taking a scenic route near the Neris River. If you're too tired to bike back for another hour, the bus no. 66 allows passengers to bring bikes on board.

By car: Around 30 minutes. Parking is available at the entrance; a €2 fee applies. An EV charging station is also available.

By taxi or rideshare: Practical if traveling in a group.

Europos Parkas – Conclusion

Art historian Amy Dempsey included Europos Parkas in her book “Destination Art“ as one of the world’s most important art places worth traveling to. She is right. But this park is much more than an art locus on someone’s bucket list.

What stays with me is not any single sculpture, though several are remarkable. It’s the original act of will – a teenager in a Soviet forest, clearing trees by hand, certain against all reasonable evidence that a patch of overgrown, marshy, desolate woodland was going to matter.

One stubborn nineteen-year-old outlasted the empire that told him no

There is something instructive in that. Not inspirational in the poster-quote sense, but genuinely instructive: about what gets built when someone refuses to accept the limits of what is supposedly possible. About what a country can become when it stops being told what it is.

Empires rise and fall. It is the lesson our modern kings keep failing to learn.

It’s visible in the dismembered Lenin rotting among long-forgotten analogue TV boxes.

A Berlin Wall fragment rising beside the trees whispers it again.

As I walk through the Lying Head, an enormous head the stage designer Adomas Jacovskis once constructed for the opera “Macbeth”, I can sense only emptiness. Rusting in grass, like a reminder that ambition and madness have a lifespan, this artwork echoes the same: power that rests on moral collapse will eventually be beheaded.

In Vilnius, one stubborn nineteen-year-old – a mustachioed baby, really, with a vision nobody else could see – outlasted the empire that told him no.

Lithuania is not a peripheral country. It is a place at the center of the idea of Europe, where art and nature can outpower the most violent human ideas.

All roads, if you follow them long enough, lead here.

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Maybe it’s when you see sunlight spilling into the atrium through geometric skylights, and an 11-meter Ramesses II rises in front of you like he’s been patiently waiting for centuries.

Or maybe it’s when you turn a corner in the Tutankhamun galleries and suddenly get face-to-face with objects so delicate, so personal – sandals, oil lamps, tiny amulets – that you forget these fragile things survived three millennia sealed inside a silent tomb.

The GEM breaks records as the largest archeological museum in the world. Spanning 500,000 square meters, the Grand Egyptian Museum complex is home to over 100,000 ancient Egyptian artifacts, double what the Louvre‘s Egyptian department holds.

Western museums, many built on collections of stolen artifacts, still hold over half a million objects taken from Egypt

To put that scale into perspective, the Giza Museum’s massive territory could swallow 70 soccer fields, the entire Vatican City, or five and a half British Museums.

Of course, the famous London museum could also squeeze parts of itself into Athens‘ Acropolis Museum (requesting the return of the Parthenon Marbles), institutions in Nigeria (demanding Benin Bronzes), or those in Ghana (Manhyia Palace Museum recently agreed to “borrow” stolen Ashanti royal treasures). The Grand Egyptian Museum, meanwhile, would very much like the Rosetta Stone back – a stela looted from Egypt in 1801, now serving as the British Museum’s crown jewel.

Estimates suggest that Western museums, many built on collections of stolen artifacts, still hold over half a million objects taken from Egypt.

So when the Grand Egyptian Museum finally opened in November, promising the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities ever assembled under one roof, it immediately started drawing an impressive number of visitors. Tourists and locals wanted to see the country’s legacy in a new light, pushing GEM’s maximum capacity of 20,000 to as many as 28,000 people on peak days.

Because this isn’t just a new museum. It’s a “finally”. For decades, Egypt’s greatest treasures were scattered, cramped, or hidden behind conservation barriers. Now, for the first time, they breathe, in a building designed to hold them, honor them, and tell their story on Egypt’s own terms.

Welcome to GEM, the biggest museum of the Arab world!

Take a peek inside the Grand Egyptian Museum in our YouTube short video!

Grand Egyptian Museum History – From Idea to Inauguration

In 1992, the aging Egyptian Museum at Tahrir Square was becoming increasingly inadequate for its growing collection. Under the government of Hosni Mubarak, a bold vision emerged for the Grand Egyptian Museum, a place that would present the entire arc of Ancient Egyptian civilization (from prehistory to the Greco-Roman period) with 21st-century scale and technology.

The foundation stone was laid in 2002, but actual construction didn’t begin until 2005. Over the next two decades, around 5,000 workers contributed to building the Grand Egyptian Museum, a mere fifth of the workforce that erected the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

The overall cost to build the Grand Egyptian Museum exceeded $1 billion USD, largely financed through Japanese loans.

On its long stop-start journey, GEM faced a variety of challenges, from funding hurdles to political upheavals (most notably the 2011 Arab Spring), all delaying progress.

The opening date became a running joke. Initially scheduled for 2020, the opening was first postponed to late 2021 due to the global pandemic. The logistical challenges delayed the debut to late 2022, then early 2023. The new announcements teased the end of 2023 as the final date, then May 2024, and July 2025, when all eyes were fixed on Gaza, not Giza.

After numerous delays and a few soft openings with partial access between 2023 and 2024, just when the internet began asking, “Will the GEM ever open?”, the Grand Egyptian Museum had its official opening on November 1, 2025.

The grand inauguration, attended by kings, queens, presidents, and other world dignitaries, was marked as a global cultural milestone. A dramatic spectacle featured drones, fireworks, and a light show.

After one last (brief) temporary closure, the Grand Egyptian Museum’s reopening on November 4, the 103rd anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, finally let visitors pour in through the gates.

Grand Egyptian Museum’s Architecture & Design

Location

The Grand Egyptian Museum is located about 20 kilometers west of central Cairo, along the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road.

It sits on the edge of the Giza Plateau, just two kilometers from the Pyramids of Giza, one of the 7 wonders of the world.

In theory, the GEM is already connected to the Giza Necropolis via a direct walkway to the pyramids. In practice, the promenade/electric shuttle route had officially “opened” in September, yet the public could still not access it when I visited in November.

Design Concept

Anchored at this symbolic position overlooking the pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum is not just aligned with them. The museum’s design draws heavily from the geometry of the Giza Plateau, with triangular motifs echoed throughout the structure.

Dublin-based Heneghan Peng Architects, led by Róisín Heneghan and Shi-Fu Peng, winners of the Grand Egyptian Museum architecture competition in 2003, designed a fan-shaped building with a vast esplanade landscaped with gardens and a one-of-a-kind Hanging Obelisk, dramatic faceted alabaster walls, and a grand entrance atrium soaring more than 50 meters high.

The monumental architecture rising from the desert landscape translates even in the Grand Egyptian Museum logo. An angular orange polygon sliced with the museum’s name in Arabic – المتحف المصري الكبير (al-Matḥaf al-Maṣriyy al-Kabīr) replicates the building’s roofline, considered the museum’s “fifth facade”.

This very same roof gently slopes to visually “meet” the highest points of the three pyramids, just as the vertical walls radiate toward them. GEM doesn’t compete with the world wonder; it frames it.

Extensive use of reinforced concrete and a smart displacement-ventilation system in the building reduce reliance on traditional air conditioning for both visitors and most artifacts at the GEM (highly sensitive items, of course, still reside in carefully controlled microclimate cases). Together with the use of solar power, LED lighting, and rainwater harvesting, this is just a part of the Grand Egyptian Museum’s sustainability efforts as the first green museum in Africa and the Middle East with an EDGE Advanced certificate.

A flaw in the design or just careless visitors’ fail? Grand Egyptian Museum staff wear shirts marked ‘SEAL’, maybe because they need to rescue people from – falling into water?

Exhibition spaces

The indoor exhibition space of the Grand Egyptian Museum, spanning 92,000 square meters, is organized into several distinct zones.

The first feature in the floor plan is the Grand Hall, dominated by the colossal statues of Ramesses II, as well as the Ptolemaic king and queen recovered from one of the sunken cities beneath the Mediterranean Sea.

The next in the layout is a six-storey staircase featuring dozens of statues that represent kings and queens, gods and half-gods, as well as sarcophagi and architectural fragments from Egyptian temples. If you don’t want to use the Grand Stairs (there are a lot!), travelators and funicular carriages offer a merciful alternative.

At the top, facing the pyramids, the museum branches in two directions.

To the left, twelve permanent galleries unfold chronologically, guiding visitors from prehistoric Egypt through the age of pyramid builders, the grandeur of the New Kingdom, and into the Greco-Roman era.

To the right, the journey leads to the Tutankhamun Gallery, 7,500 square meters housing everything found in the boy king’s tomb, except for his mummy, which still lies in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.

Slightly apart from the main GEM complex stands the Khufu’s Boats Museum, home to some of the world’s oldest surviving wooden ships. The centrepiece is the 42-meter Solar Boat of Khufu, meant to carry the pharaoh to the afterlife with the sun god Ra.

GEM Collection Highlights

If you have time and stamina, the chronological route through the Grand Egyptian Museum is deeply rewarding – a slow walk through statues, reliefs, royal portraits, pottery, tools, and everyday objects.

But if your schedule is tighter or your attention span shorter, there are a few must-see showstoppers you absolutely cannot skip.

Colossal Statue of Ramesses II

Practically unmissable among the impressive colossi, as it meets you at the main entrance of the museum’s vast atrium, the 11-meter-tall granite statue of Ramesses II is one of GEM’s most iconic residents. This gatekeeper radiates the quiet confidence of someone who ruled for 66 years and knew it.

Weighing over 80 tons, a dramatic, 3,200-year-old representation of Egypt’s most powerful pharaoh originally stood before the Great Temple of Ptah near ancient Memphis, where it was discovered in 1820, in several broken pieces.

Reassembled, it spent decades presiding over Cairo‘s Ramses Square – surrounded by traffic vibrations, exhaust fumes, and the general chaos of modern urban life, none of which were kind to a monument built in the Bronze Age.

In 2018, Ramesses II was carefully relocated to the GEM’s central hall, his new forever home.

Tutankhamun Treasures

No part of the Grand Egyptian Museum has generated more anticipation than the Tutankhamun collection.

For the first time since Howard Carter opened the teenager pharaoh’s tomb in 1922, all 5,000+ objects discovered inside, from golden shrines to sandals, chariots, and textile fragments, are displayed together in purpose-built galleries designed for narrative immersion. You can follow Tutankhamun’s short life, elaborate burial, and carefully engineered journey into the afterlife in a flowing sequence.

Highlights include:

• King Tut mask – visitors orbit this golden funerary mask (presented with improved conservation lighting), as if it’s a Mecca, smartphones raised for shots from every angle.
• Golden and wooden shrines enclosing the nested sarcophagi – a matryoshka puzzle of coffins inside coffins inside coffins.
• Ritual objects, jewelry, and amulets rarely seen outside conservation labs.
• Everyday items – toys, clothing, walking sticks, wine jars
• Chariots and weapons, impeccably preserved.

The Tutankhamun halls alone justify a trip to Giza. Like previously mentioned, the only thing you won’t find here is King Tutankhamun’s body – his mummy still rests in the original tomb in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings.

GEM Mummies

If you remember that 2021 parade of mummies, a televised Pharaoh’s Golden Parade that transported royal mummies from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, they ended up in the Royal Mummies Hall at The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat.

While not competing in the royal mummy league, the Grand Egyptian Museum still has some. Instead of focusing on the macabre exhibitionism, the GEM highlights exhibits that tell stories about burial practices and the journey to the afterlife.

That includes mummies of non-royal Egyptians, such as mummified remains of a wealthy woman from Saqqara Necropolis, or animal mummies, such as a 4,000-year-old crocodile once worshipped as Sobek, the crocodile god of Kom Ombo.

Not Just a Museum – A Cultural Mega-Campus

One of the Grand Egyptian Museum’s defining qualities is its ambition. It is not merely a gallery space you “pop into” between pyramids and lunch. GEM is a fully realized archaeological and cultural campus, designed to keep you engaged for an entire day – willingly, not out of obligation.

Here are a few more facilities and amenities it offers:

• GEM Children’s Museum, blending education and play in interactive exhibitions.
• Immersive experiences in the Mixed Reality Hall, such as the VR trip through pyramid construction or ancient Egyptian beliefs about death, burial, and rebirth.
• GEM Discovery Challenge – a smartphone-powered treasure hunt game that turns the museum into a puzzle-solving playground.
• Conservation laboratories, among the most advanced in the region.
• Restoration workshops for newly unearthed archaeological finds.
• Educational and conference facilities, halls, and theaters.
• Food court with restaurants & cafés, from 30 North and Starbucks to Bitter Sweet and Zooba (where we enjoyed an excellent Egyptian street-food style lunch).
• Official gift shop, a place to find GEM souvenirs and merchandise.
• Artisan spaces, offering everything from body care products and jewelry to handmade rugs.
• Free photo booth.

The aim is clear: create a full-day visitor experience and position Giza as a premier world cultural destination and tourist hub.

Grand Egyptian Museum’s Wider Impact – Culture, Tourism & Heritage

The opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum isn’t just a ribbon-cutting moment. It is a turning point for the country, a strategic investment in heritage-driven tourism and a soft-power megaphone on the global stage.

For decades, Egypt has been balancing the need to preserve its ancient treasures without crushing them under the weight of modern tourism.

Older institutions, especially the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, have been bursting at the seams, struggling with overcrowding and aging infrastructure.

GEM alleviates this pressure by moving thousands of artifacts into climate-controlled spaces with world-class standards. It lets scholars, conservators, and visitors engage with Egypt’s heritage in ways previously impossible.

On a national and international scale, the museum is set to turbocharge tourism sustainably. With its location near the Giza Plateau and improved infrastructure, the Grand Egyptian Museum, as a living time machine, reshapes the area into a cohesive cultural district rather than a quick pyramid pit-stop.

Planning Your GEM Visit

Despite the grandiosity of the project and its overall investment, not everything goes smoothly. The ticketing system often collapses, and even when you manage to reserve your ticket, you can still expect large crowds.

During my visit, turnstiles were out of order (or completely abandoned as a way to control the number of entries). A single scan outside the building was enough to set me loose on the museum’s vast grounds.

GEM Opening Hours

Opening times of the Grand Egyptian Museum galleries are 9 am to 6 pm. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, the closing time is at 9 pm.

While you can enter the GEM Complex half an hour before the opening, you need to exit one hour after the galleries close.

The last entry to the museum is at 5 pm (8 pm on extended days).

Grand Egyptian Museum Tickets

GEM tickets for Egyptian adults cost EGP 200.

For foreigners, adult tickets cost EGP 1,450 (approximately 26 euros or 30 dollars).

Children below the age of 6 can enter for free, while pupils and students pay half price.

It is recommended to book tickets online through the official website. If you can, pick an earlier time slot out of the four offered (8:30 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm).

In case the system falls, which can happen, you can also try and book Grand Egyptian Museum tickets through these partner links: Get Your Guide or Klook.

GEM Tours

A two-hour guided group tour of the Grand Egyptian Museum, booked through the official website (available in Arabic and English), costs EGP 1.950 (35 euros or 40 dollars).

For excursions and private tours, you can check these well-rated skip-the-line options, which you can usually cancel 24 hours before, with a full refund, in case your plans change:

Get Your Guide

Three-hour guided tour with hotel pickup – number #1 selling tour – 42 euros or 50 dollars – more info here.

Top-rated eight-hour program that includes GEM, but also a visit to the Pyramids, the Great Sphinx, Khafre’s Valley Temple, and lunch – 81 euros or 95 dollars – more info here.

Grand Egyptian Museum from Hurghada, a full-day bus tour of the Pyramids-Sphinx area and GEM, with included lunch – 103 euros or 121 dollars – more info here.

#1 selling day trip from Hurghada, GEM, and Giza Plateau by plane – 260 euros or 305 dollars – more info here.

Viator

A small-group day trip from Hurghada, including the Pyramid Area, the Sphinx, and GEM – 98 euros or 117 dollars – more info here.

How long does it take to visit the Grand Egyptian Museum

The Grand Egyptian Museum can easily become a full-day experience. Its scale requires time.

Of course, if you are in a major rush, you can run through its highlights in 1 hour.

But for a more relaxed experience, I suggest you reserve at least 4 hours, including a break for lunch or coffee.

Photography at the museum

Personal photography and video recordings are allowed, without the use of flash, tripods, or monopods.

Luggage Storage

You can enter GEM with a bag smaller than 40×40 cm. If you have anything bigger, like a backpack, you’ll need to store it in the cloakroom. The museum’s bag policy also includes inspection of the bags.

Dress code

There is no strictly enforced dress code for the Grand Egyptian Museum. However, Egypt is conservative, so avoid wearing overly revealing clothing. Comfortable walking shoes are essential.

Accessibility

While the Grand Egyptian Museum has a lot of stairs, it offers excellent accessibility via ramps, elevators, and travelators (people-movers). The museum also provides free wheelchair rental and accessible restrooms.

For visually impaired visitors, there are tactile replicas with Braille and audio-described tours, while hearing-impaired visitors can join tours with sign-language interpretation.

Museum entry for people with disabilities is free.

How to get to the Grand Egyptian Museum

Once the Cairo Metro Line 4, connecting 6th of October City to New Cairo, comes into operation, you’ll be able to get to the Grand Egyptian Museum by metro (the nearest metro station to the GEM will be Pyramids Station). First trains are expected in May 2026.

You can also use ride-hailing apps such as Uber, Careem, or InDrive to arrange a transfer, but expect drivers to ask for off-app payment in cash, often higher than the agreed price. Have smaller bills ready for tips or payment. While drivers may accept dollars or euros, they might refuse coins.

Hotels near Grand Egyptian Museum

If you want to stay in the vicinity of the Grand Egyptian Museum and the Pyramids of Giza, there are several options worth considering.

Among the budget options, you can check Superior Pyramids Inn, Topview Pyramids and Museum, or Grand Museum View Hotel. You should be able to book a double room in these accommodations for 22-24 euros already.

If you want to splurge a little, with included amenities such as a swimming pool, consider Noya by Dhara Hotels, or a wonderful oasis of JAZ Pyramids Resort. Nightly rates at these upscale properties start above 100 euros.

Is the Grand Egyptian Museum Worth It? – Verdict

After decades of problems and delays, Egypt finally has its Grand Egyptian Museum.

It would be easy to say GEM is a gem, but it isn’t flawless. With a chaotic ticket system and visitor management, overcrowding can affect their experience of the visit.

Additionally, the museum opens in a country that is faced with severe debt and economic struggles. Locals may feel the prices are steep.

On the other hand, the turnstiles for the museum management seem to be the only ones that work. Shifts of responsible persons are frequent, and even corruption cases have opened inside the museum.

The Grand Egyptian Museum is a celebration of Egypt’s identity, creativity, and pride

But the importance of the Grand Egyptian Museum lies far beyond operational bumps – in its noble idea that connects heritage preservation with a modern museum design, and large-scale tourism ambitions. Hopefully, it can be sustainable in the long term.

The beacon of that hope, the Grand Egyptian Museum, aims to be more than a repository of objects.

It is Egypt’s statement to the world, sometimes even to that “noble” Western museum world that profits from colonial-era acquisitions. Egypt will reclaim its story.

GEM is a celebration of Egypt’s identity, creativity, and pride.

Standing in the shadow of the pyramids yet gleaming with a distinctly modern spirit, this museum bridges past and present with a crucial mandate that heritage doesn’t have to be a slave to a commercial, never-satisfied mentality. We can share the legacy of those before us, if we choose co-existence “with” instead of exploitation “of” or “against”.

Whether you’re a seasoned traveler, an archaeology student, or simply curious, the Grand Egyptian Museum is now one of the most inviting cultural destinations on Earth.

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The author of the majority of the images in this article is Ivan Kralj.
Exceptions, in the order of appearance, are these: 

GEM under construction 2017 - Ovedc, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
GEM under construction 2019 - Djehouty, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Hanging Obelisk - George Wang, Pexels
GEM logo - Atelier Brückner

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Is “Saint or Sinner?” a meaningful critique or a cheap shock art?

Famed for Basel museums (for instance, Kunstmuseum Basel artworks form the world’s oldest public art collection), this Swiss city is not a stranger to debate-stimulating art. But when the orange president arrived in Rümelins-Passage, now rechristened Kunstmeile, curiosity levels spiked. The number of pedestrians cutting through a walkway connecting Gerbergasse and Rümelinsplatz practically doubled.

Brought to Basel by Galerie Gleis 4, a Zug-based gallery specializing in pop-up exhibitions, Mason Storm’s artwork “Saint or Sinner?” seems to have struck a soft nerve at a delicate moment.

When global security is interlocked with the unpredictable whims of an autocrat-brat, is the artist truly asking whether we believe in Donald Trump’s holiness? Maybe the artistic depiction doesn’t need a saintliness check, but a sanity check.

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable” is a maxim attributed to Banksy, a street art provocateur and supposedly Storm’s former employer. But not everything that disturbs comfort automatically qualifies as art.

While an orange-tanned and orange-clad US president spreads his tied, victim-like hands in Basel’s shop window, viewers are left to wonder: is “Saint or Sinner?” a meaningful critique or a cheap shock art?

Kunstmeile Basel – the art artery with no closing hours

As a 24/7 public art promenade in the heart of Basel’s Old Town, Kunstmeile Basel was launched in December 2024, on the initiative of its founder, Lakis Sgouridis, an artist and cultural entrepreneur with Greek-Spanish roots.

From 1956 till 2020, the Rümelins-Passage or Gerber-Passage was known as the entrance to Studio Central, Basel's first basement cinema that could fit 233 movie fans.

Nowadays, the 150-meter passageway, with "Kunst Meile, herzen von Basel" sign at its entrance, features rotating exhibitions in street-facing vitrines, giving space to both emerging and established artists.

Unlike its namesake art miles in Hamburg (Kunstmeile Blankenese) and Berlin (Kunstmeile im Weitlingkiez), which display art in shop windows during festive, limited-run periods, Basel Kunstmeile exhibitions are accessible around the clock, democratizing access to the arts throughout the year.

Basel gives Trump the finger

“Oh, he is so small”, someone blurts out upon seeing the lifelike sculpture. Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, as if detained in Guantánamo Bay, and strapped to a white padded cross, the reclining hyperrealistic figure of Donald Trump looks instantly familiar. The realization that the mannequin’s only half-size almost seems like a letdown.

A young woman strolls past, grinning broadly, pausing just long enough to strike her own crucifixion pose.

“He should be hanging upside down”, an older man with a wild beard bellows from behind. “He is a freaking Antichrist!”

Displayed in front of a black-and-white comic-style mural, the “saint or sinner” Trump shines bright. But the background doesn’t feel just like a chaotic collage of imagery. There are superhero saviors, a rampaging Godzilla, and, stealing the scene, a nun flipping the double middle finger. Her gesture recalls this year’s Basel Fasnacht, a carnival parade where an anti-Trump marching band played flutes and drums behind middle-finger masks.

As he turns his head away from the saluting sister, eyes firmly shut, the biggest Narcissus among all US presidents, who inspired the No Kings Movement, now finds himself sharing the exhibition room with different kinds of kings: the tongue-wagging Lällekönig and King Kong, Hollywood‘s tragic alpha ape.

The whole set-up could be read as a nuanced gallery mockery, but what comes from Mason Storm is just the crucified effigy of Donald Trump, and the box it was delivered in. Even the parcel makes a statement. On the crate, the word ‘FRAGILE’ blazes in red capitals, with a smaller subtitle underneath – ‘IDEOLOGY’.

Who is Mason Storm?

Mason Storm is a London-born, informally trained contemporary artist known for fusing classical art tropes with modern icons.

Hidden behind a designer balaclava, he maintains a mysterious public persona, claiming he has a background in martial arts, security, intelligence, law, and journalism.

Even if working anonymously himself, the artist hit mainstream headlines in 2010 after threatening to reveal Banksy's true identity, as a marketing stunt.

When Mason Storm released "Monkey Parliament" painting (2022), he practically suggested he was the long-rumored ghost painter for Banksy's "Devolved Parliament" (2009), a chimp-filled canvas that fetched a staggering £9.9 million at auction.

Yet Storm has never come close to matching the fame of his supposed former boss. His Instagram account, boldly titled @masonstormgenius (and self-billed as "the artist people love to love and love to hate"), is followed by 7.5k followers, a figure dwarfed by Banksy's 13.8 million fans.  

Mason Storm's art leans heavily on political and pop culture commentary, producing paintings like "Your Name's Not Down You're Not Coming In" (Pope Francis as Berghain-style bouncer for paradise) and "ICON's" (the Last Supper served with a Big Mac, fries, and a Coke).

Mason Storm’s Gospel of Trump

While exposed to the curious stares of passers-by, the mini-Trump behind the gallery glass could be a moral crash-test dummy, exposed to our condemning views as we wait for that lethal injection to be administered.

This is what Mason Storm wants us to reflect on – on guilt and forgiveness, on “how and according to what criteria do we judge”. The artist almost steps into Christ‘s sandals, handing out the biblical stone into our hands, and wondering who will throw it against the window first.

By portraying Donald Trump as a victim of judgment, while hiding his own stance not just behind the fabricated “saint or sinner” dilemma, but also a rather phlegmatic question mark, Mason Storms seems to fail to own the provocation.

Protected by his identityless balaclava, he claims to leave the answer to the viewer, while simultaneously lecturing us that “in a world full of extreme opinions, people are quick to condemn or immunize, without nuances”.

No, in Trump’s case, “the line between light and shadow” is not that fine. Even the President who inspired the artwork, recently shared thoughts that he might not be “heaven-bound”, believing there was nothing that could get him closer to heaven than Air Force One.

This, of course, doesn’t mean that Donald Trump doesn’t have a messiah complex, or that, occasionally, he doesn’t love to entertain the idea of his holiness.

Just a couple of days after attending Pope Francis‘s funeral, the jester President proudly declared: “I’d like to be pope.” Then, even the official White House account shared his AI-generated image in papal attire.

But how did Trump’s pathological level of grandiosity, sprinkled with all his good deeds and imaginary wars he stopped and lives he saved, become a valid qualification for sanctification? At what point did the art that springboards the idea of the President’s divinity (oh, pardon me, the artist is just “posing a question”) become an exercise in a supposedly provocative exhibition of courage?

If you want to witness a real-life crucifixion, see how they do it at the Maleldo Festival.

The passion of the Donald – a colossal miscasting?

The big beautiful sinner was originally destined for Basel’s SBB Central Train Station in September. But due to “expected large crowds and feared disturbances” presenting a security risk, Galerie Gleis 4 postponed the exhibition and, in the meantime, found a new temporary home for the President dummy – the Vitrine 45 of Kunstmeile Basel.

As soon as the news broke that Mason Storm’s installation, previously shown by Bakershouse Gallery (Graz) at Vienna‘s Art Austria Fair in May, would head for Basel, critical voices started questioning the artwork’s lack of taste. And not for the fact that dummy Trump’s shoes are orange Crocs.

Simon Peng-Keller, a theology professor at the University of Zurich, told the Catholic media outlet kath.ch that Storm’s piece amounted to “cheap scandalous art”, arguing the artist failed to question the dominant US narrative that allows Trump to style himself as a victim or martyr.

“One could speak of a colossal miscasting”, Peng-Keller said. “If one wanted to locate Donald Trump in the Passion story, his place would not be on the side of the crucified, but on that of the representatives of the brutal Roman Empire, who wash their hands in innocence and write decrees in their fortresses and palaces that plunge countless people into poverty, misery, and death.”

Despite protests from Swiss Catholics who felt the installation mocked their faith, Kunstmeile held firm and went ahead with posing the question in central Basel: “Saint or Sinner?”

The pedestrian walkway that typically sees about 1000 visitors a day, suddenly hit its all-time record.

Within the first week of unveiling in November, the electronic counter documented nearly 16.000 visitors – a resurrection in foot traffic any church would be proud of.

If you're exploring the town and are short on budget, it's good to know that there are plenty of free things to do in Basel. This includes the world's tiniest, Hoosesagg Museum, also displayed in a small window. Plan your itinerary now!

Saint or Sinner? – Conclusion

It is perfectly legitimate for art to provoke and pose uncomfortable questions. What makes Mason Storm’s artwork deeply cowardly is not the fact that the artist hides his identity behind some anonymous-porn-maker mask. The troublesome fact is that he throws the US President’s crucified mini-me before the crowds, in the role of a modern Pontius Pilate, giving his fake moral dilemma a democratic aura.

Asking whether Donald Trump might be a saint is not a provocation for a thinking brain, but an insult

No, it is not up to each viewer to decide whether that symbolic puppet of a midget playing the world’s greatest cop should suffer for his sins, or be canonized for his selfless peacemaking (what?). In fact, the viewer can always choose their own answer, and doesn’t need the artist’s permission to think.

However, the artist who washes his hands of artistic responsibility, hiding behind both “or” and a question mark in what is marketed as a bold, biting political statement, is not opting for being neutral. The artist is being neutered.

In a world where even Donald Trump’s most devoted admirers (including Donald Trump himself, the undisputed president of that fan club) don’t invoke the saintliness of His Highness, asking whether he might be a saint is not a provocation for a thinking brain, but an insult. One doesn’t need to be a Christian to feel disgust over such a forged moral riddle.

Donald Trump is no saint. Even if, in some perverted version of heaven, he were granted sainthood, it would certainly be as the patron saint of sinners. Trump is a proud and ruthless sinner, a sufferer only in the wet dreams of Fox News, MAGA cultists, and potentially, Mason Storm.

“Saint or sinner?” might have satisfied the surface-level curiosity of casual pedestrians and got Basel talking. But from the courageous painter of the “Monkey Parliament?” (mistakenly titled as “Monkey Parliament”), especially on the safe terrain of nominally neutral Switzerland, which still knows how to poke with the right finger when it counts, we have expected something with real teeth.

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What if we gave each song a canvas twin? Eurovision provided acts, Kunstmuseum gave us centuries of mood, metaphor, and abstract nudes

Available to visitors since 1671, this grandiose Museum of Art displays a wide range of works, from Renaissance masters to modern and contemporary art. Basel Kunstmuseum exhibitions regularly feature impressionists and post-impressionists such as Vincent Van Gogh, cubists such as Pablo Picasso, or expressionists like Oskar Kokoschka. Kunstmuseum in Basel also loves to shine light on overlooked revolutionaries, like the current retrospective on Italian-French sculptor Medardo Rosso.

With Eurovision fans, often prioritizing glitter and spectacle, storming Basel in feather boas and flag capes, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a culture clash waiting to happen. High art vs. high camp. Exhibitions vs. exhibitionism. Two hardly connected worlds, right?

But what if we gave each song a canvas twin? Eurovision provided acts, Kunstmuseum gave us centuries of mood, metaphor, and abstract nudes. What do we get if we put them together?

From Käthe Kollwitz’s grief-stricken mothers to Penck’s fire-stick men, I matched this year’s performances with Kunstmuseum Basel artworks that felt just right. Some are perfect fits. Others are… interpretive. Much like Eurovision itself.

Check out these museum-music match-ups!

Baby Lasagna performed in the Basel Eurovision's pre-show. During the act, a series of visual glitches appeared, some referencing web art pioneers, others distributing Islamic struggle messages. Is this the newest Eurovision controversy?

Eurovision meets Museums. Or does it?

When Basel City proposed a free press tour of the cutting-edge Vitra Design Museum and the surrounding architecture campus, I was the only journalist (among hundreds!) who showed up. With a question mark above my head: did Eurovision fans not care for art beyond their bubble?

A few days later, a guided tour of the Kunstmuseum, one of the best museums in Basel, attracted a dozen media colleagues, restoring hope that centuries of art could still provide meaning.

After an hour of exploring the highlights of the Kunstmuseum Basel collection in the media group, I decided to linger and roam the place on my own.

With Eurovision goggles on, I tried to determine whether centuries-old Kunstmuseum Basel artworks could speak to today’s Eurovision crowd.

My visit turned into an exciting curatorial game. Eurovision is alive and well among Kunstmuseum Basel masterpieces. You just have to know where to look.

Where to stay near Kunstmuseum Basel?

Located just 200 meters from the Kunstmuseum Basel, Nomad Design & Lifestyle Hotel offers a modern and urban atmosphere. Housed in a classic 1950s building, the hotel features individually furnished rooms, a lively restaurant, fitness center, and sauna. Guests benefit from amenities like free Wi-Fi, complimentary bicycles, and a BaselCard for free public transport. There’s even a Library Club. Book this hotel through your preferred platform: Booking, Agoda, Trip, and Expedia.

Another hotel providing convenient access to the Kunstmuseum Basel, some 500 meters away, is Motel One Basel, in the heart of Basel’s Old Town. This budget-friendly design hotel offers modern rooms, a 24-hour front desk, and a stylish bar. Guests appreciate its central location, close to major sights and public transportation hubs. Book this hotel through your preferred platform: Booking, Agoda, Trip, and Expedia.

What to see in Kunstmuseum Basel

Kunstmuseum Basel shop

Every good museum visit should either begin or end at the gift shop. Preferably both.

At the Kunstmuseum Basel shop, my eye was immediately drawn to a shelf of linen tea towels – the signature creations of Glasgow-based visual artist and cheeky contrarian David Shrigley. Made by Third Drawer Down, these products can function both as posters and as, well, towels.

The illustrator rose to fame by poking fun at the pretensions of art-world seriousness dictated by schools. One of his towels simply reads “Be nice”, softened by a rainbow.

It brought to mind an oddly relevant moment from this year’s Eurovision. When the contest’s Media Handbook asked journalists to “be respectful” and not damage anyone’s image, some cried censorship. Managing Director Martin Green dismissed the interpretation that this goes against the freedom of the press, and translated their request as: “Be kind.” He would’ve probably loved to dry his washed hands with D. Shrig towels.

Over in the Kunstmuseum Neubau (the 2016 extension of Kunstmuseum Basel), another gift shop offers more merchandise gems. One tote bag declared: “I have been to hell and back. And let me tell you, it was wonderful.”

Wait, didn’t the verses go “I, I went to hell and back, to find myself on track”?

The bags were not quoting Nemo, a non-binary Eurovision winner, but Louise Bourgeois. The French-American artist also dealt with themes of sexuality, trauma, and fear of rejection. And, for her, sculpting was a form of exorcism, a way to discharge emotions through art.

Finding Nemo at Kunstmuseum Basel

Our guided tour through the highlights of the Kunstmuseum Basel artworks began before a chilling oil-and-tempera painting – “The Dead Christ in the Tomb” (1521-1522). German artist Hans Holbein the Younger (whose works formed the base of the Kunstmuseum’s collection through the Amerbach Cabinet) painted Christ’s lifeless body in a horizontal format, with such an unsettling realism that devout viewers might instinctively clutch their rosaries.

Christ’s hand, frozen in decomposition, appears to extend a middle finger – whether toward the heavens or humanity is open to interpretation. The macabre artwork even appeared in Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot”, questioning the power of religion over nature. As Prince Myshkin says in the novel: “A man could even lose his faith from that painting!”

But my Eurovision-senses began to tingle just next door. In a quieter corner of Renaissance grandeur, hung the “Portrait of Jakob Meyer zum Pheil of Basel” (1511). Attributed to an Upper Rhine master from Hans Baldung Grien’s circle, the painting showed a man from a noble family of Basel cloth merchants, the youngest son of Nikolaus Meyer zum Pheil, a 15^th-century Mulhouse mayor.

Now, some might argue that Nemo’s “The Code” owes more to the “Diva Dance” in “The Fifth Element” than to anything painted before the electricity. Even their Eurovision interval act “Unexplainable” continued to explore the same sci-fi universe and interdimensional vocals, with the Leeloo-style orange wig, of course.

But as I squinted in front of the Renaissance portrait of the prominent patrician Mr Jakob, I couldn’t help but reflect that, if Nemo did travel through time, they might not have gone forward, to the 23^rd century, but backward, to the 16^th.

Staging the Eurovision scene

If you watched Basel Eurovision, you remember the centerpiece of St. Jakobshalle was a showstopper stage with a mountain-inspired design. Following the idea of Florian Wieder (his ninth stage design for Eurovision), a giant LED screen showed alpine peaks pulsating in pink, red, and light blue colors.

Naturally, when I stumbled upon the “Amselfluh” (1922) in one of Kunstmuseum Basel’s corridors, I couldn’t unsee it. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s oil on canvas portrayed a vivid mountainous landscape in vibrant colors that saturated the intense scene with a sense of dramatic movement, in a similar way that digital Eurovision hearts did to its stage mountains.

In the center of the painting, a lone human figure blows a horn, anchoring us in the surreal panorama.

Then it hit me: the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest was not just opened on a stage with a similar color palette, but the main music act of the opening was Lochus Alphorn Quartett, a group that summons the spirits of the Alps with their traditional wooden wind instruments.

Just like Wieder, Kirchner was also German, but one whose work Nazis labeled as “degenerate”. Despite many of his works being destroyed, the co-founder of Die Brücke remains remembered as one of the most influential figures of Expressionism.

View to Infinity (Ferdinand Hodler) & Five Bathers (Paul Cézanne)

Climb the grand staircase of Kunstmuseum Basel and you’re rewarded with a view that’s – quite literally – infinite. The large-scale painting was initially created for Kunsthaus Zürich (1913-1916). However, the monumental dimensions of “View to Infinity” (9 x 4.5 meters) wouldn’t fit the original destination, so Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler had to make a new version for Zurich. Basel graciously hosted the big one.

The painting features five women standing before a curved horizon in flowing blue robes, gazing into the distance. It shows the human contemplation of the universe, searching for meaning through meditation. The cosmic calm they channel feels worlds away from Eurovision. Or is it?

Tautumeitas, Latvia’s Eurovision entry, created probably the most transcendental experience during the entire competition. The Baltic queens of ancestral chant polyphony turned the stage into a ritual site, inviting us into a sonic trance of layered harmonies and cultural heritage pride. Their “Bur Man Laimi” performance felt like a spiritual séance wrapped in folk couture, which, in retrospect, could easily hang next to Hodler’s mystics-in-robes.

Swiss art historian Oskar Bätschmann once compared “View to Infinity” to Paul Cézanne’s “Large Bathers”. Exactly in front of Cézanne’s oil on canvas “Five Bathers” (1885-1887), from the same series that explores human figures in a landscape, did I think of Latvia’s Eurovision act again.

In Post-Impressionist style, five nude women blend into nature without precise details in their faces and bodies. The artist ditched realism in favor of abstraction, marking a crucial turning point in art history that questioned the very nature of painting.

Similarly, the mesmerizing performance of “Bur Man Laimi”, with hypnotic rhythm and earthy tones that remind of Cézanne’s Bathers, enchanted the audience by avoiding individual portraiture of the singers, and focusing on the harmony and feminine mystique they brought as a collective.

Latvia landed 13^th, right in the middle of the scoreboard. Not quite infinity, but far from zero.

The Two Brothers (Pablo Picasso)

One of the most iconic Kunstmuseum Basel artworks is Picasso’s “The Two Brothers” (1906). This oil on canvas captured two nude boys, the older one carrying the younger on his back.

Picasso painted this piece during his stay in the village of Gósol, on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, where earthy Catalan influences softened his brush. He rendered the two figures in gentle contours and muted reds.

“The Two Brothers” was one of the two paintings (“Seated Harlequin” being the other) whose owners, faced with financial difficulties, decided to sell them in the 1960s.

Refusing to lose the loaned artworks, Basel taxpayers voted to save them in the 1967 referendum (yes, for real!), and fork out 6 million Swiss francs. The citizens had to contribute the rest; they went out to the streets, organized now-legendary Bettlerfest (Beggar’s Festival), and raised an additional 2.4 million francs with performances, selling goods, and shaking donation cans. Touched by the Baslers’ passionate fight, Picasso gifted the Kunstmuseum Basel four more artworks.

The younger, flame-haired brother in the saved painting from the artist’s Rose Period (phase when he swapped blue melancholy for warm tones, tender friendships, and a hint of circus optimism) is a spit image of Belgium’s Eurovision entrant: Red Sebastian.

The rouge-tinted and vocally impressive Seppe Herreman (Red Sebastian’s civilian alias) lit up the stage with “Strobe Lights”, but sadly didn’t make it past the Semi-Final – the Eurovision equivalent of failing a public referendum.

Woman with Hat Seated in an Armchair (Pablo Picasso)

Another of Picasso’s artworks housed in the Kunstmuseum Basel is “Woman with Hat Seated in an Armchair” (1941-1942). The portrait with fragmented, angular forms, blending Cubism and Expressionism, is believed to represent Dora Maar, Picasso’s lover and a frequent subject in his paintings during the dark days of World War II.

Equally elegant, in an introspective pose, and with the interplay of light and shadow, a pop artist from Picasso’s homeland started her dynamic performance at the Swiss Eurovision. Melodía Ruiz Gutiérrez, or more condensed – Melody, brought “Esa Diva” to the Basel stage, an act bursting with Spanish flair and theatrical energy.

Melody’s woman-empowering show might have started like a pose, but unlike Picasso’s muse, she refused to remain in a frame. The singer tore through the curtain, delivered a quick-change act, from black to silver, and a bold choreography that only supported her vocal power. This diva paints herself!

While Melody didn’t climb high on the scoreboard (24th, with 37 points), her charismatic stage performance left an imprint – an act of rebellion against stillness, against reduction. Much like Picasso’s postwar portraits, Esa Diva was fragmented, expressive, raw. And impossible to ignore.

Marguerite Gachet at the Piano (Vincent Van Gogh)

“Marguerite Gachet at the Piano” (1890) is another portrait of a seated woman quietly hanging at the Kunstmuseum Basel. Here, a lady in a rose-colored dress is caught mid-melody, fingers on a dark violet piano, against a green wall with orange spots. The characteristic expressive brushwork on this double-square oil on canvas is unmistakable – it is one of the last artworks of the famous Vincent Van Gogh.

Marguerite was a 21-year-old daughter of Dr. Paul Gachet, the physician who cared for Dutch artist in Auvers-sur-Oise, a village where Van Gogh spent his final months. The young woman in the painting appears distant and detached, concentrated on the piano, and radiating a certain melancholy.

Also featured in a semi-profile view, with a white-painted face and emitting a similar introverted gloominess, Italy’s Lucio Corsi opened his Eurovision performance of “Volevo essere un duro” (“I Wanted to Be Tough”) while playing the keys on the piano. Or, well, pretending to play them.  ­

In 1999, instrumental music was expelled from the contest when Israel decided to avoid spending money on an orchestra. Other broadcasters followed suit, establishing a backing track as a golden standard of Eurovision, where instruments were reduced to props.

Lucio broke the fourth wall of Eurovision convention by integrating a mouth organ (harmonica) into the voice microphone, and thus entered history as the first ESC act in this millennium to play an instrument live.

The song landed a respectable fifth place in the Grand Final.

Harlequin (Walter Kurt Wiemken)

In a Kunstmuseum Basel room echoing with circus motifs, a vibrantly strange “Harlequin” (1925) stood out. This is an artwork by a Basel-born painter, Walter Kurt Wiemken, known for his contributions to Expressionism, Impressionism, and Surrealism.

The painting of a trickster with hair parting blended influences of all three while portraying a classical figure that embodies theatricality and disguise. The harlequin appeared fragmented, with a brushwork that bordered on the childlike, reminiscent of Paul Klee’s sketch-like universe.

With signature dance moves that looked as if someone had prompted AI to generate a video from an image (and used “Harlequin” as that image, of course), Tommy Cash represented Estonia at Eurovision 2025 with an absurdist satirical song “Espresso Macchiato”.

Tomas Tammemets’s eccentric alter ego, with exaggerated coffee-fueled footwork, supported a modern-day harlequin act, a disorienting chaos fit of Wiemken’s Espressionism universe. They both reflected on identity and disguise, serving a protest against conservative trends in the arts.

Europe seemed to love it. Tommy Cash finished third in the Grand Final – proof that, at Eurovision, there’s always room for something disjointed.

Girl With Long Hair (Adolf Dietrich)

“Girl With Long Hair” (1930) is an important piece in the artistic legacy of Adolf Dietrich, a self-taught Swiss painter associated with Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) – a German art reaction against Expressionism.

This naïve art painting features a young girl gazing forward, her long hair flowing, rendered with soft but precise brushstrokes. The composition celebrates stillness and simplicity, capturing a subject’s presence without excessive embellishment.

In a very similar fashion and quiet intensity, Zoë Më took the Eurovision stage for Switzerland. Filmed in one uninterrupted shot, the performance of her introspective ballad “Voyage”, with cinematic setup and soft lighting, evoked an atmosphere of solitude and intimacy, supporting the singer’s delicate tone.

One doesn’t have to fulfill Eurovision’s maximum quota of six people on stage to leave an impression. Sometimes, less is indeed more.

And yet, Eurovision is often a party, not a gallery. The juries appreciated Zoë’s restraint, enough to push her into 10th place overall. But televoters? Not a single point. Maybe minimalism doesn’t text.

Girl on the Balcony (Georg Schrimpf) & War Picture (Maly Blumer)

Among the leading figures of Weimar Germany’s Neue Sachlichkeit art movement was Georg Schrimpf. As he belonged to the “right wing”, he managed to float under the radar of Nazi censors who interpreted his art as a tolerable form of German Romanticism. But his socialist past caught up with him; his professorship was revoked, and his works were branded “degenerate”, removed from museums and public life.

“Girl on the Balcony” (1927), gazing into the distance, seemingly lost in thought, fits Schrimpf’s serene, dreamlike realism. As if caught between the private interior world and the vast openness beyond, this quiet contemplation on the balcony represents introspection and detachment, where emotional excess is rejected.

When Yuval Raphael took to the Eurovision stage for Israel with “New Day Will Rise”, she too stood on a balcony – albeit a much shinier one. Perched on a glittering chandelier structure, the staging was an artistic nod to the balcony where Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, posed during the 1897 Zionist Congress in Basel. Yuval didn’t just stage the foundation of the Zionist movement in crystal stones at Eurovision; she even went to the original balcony to recreate the photograph that started it all.

To understand the full gravity of Israel’s performance, there is a painting in the Kunstmuseum’s fundus that perhaps connects better with the decision to bring a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre as a Zionist mascot to Basel, delivering an overtly symbolic, politically charged message.

Maly Blumer-Marcus, a Basel native who initially painted still lifes, later explored human experiences and darker, conflict-related subjects. Her “War Picture” or Kriegsbild (1930-1975) is a deeply haunting portrayal of human agony. A monstrous figure of Death, with an oppressive, predatory aura, spreads its wings over an unidentifiable mass of victims, conveying a wartime trauma and a sense of hopelessness.

While Blumer likely depicted displacement and despair in the Second World War (just as her 1939 painting “Refugees on the Run”), the landscape suffocated with smoke in the “War Picture” is eerily universal. One might easily see a silhouette of Gaza as Dresden, with a deadly bomber flying over it.

So perhaps Israel’s 2025 Eurovision act wasn’t just another girl on a balcony, “seemingly lost in thought”. Perhaps it was closer to Blumer’s vision: a stage cloaked in politics, asking a continent to look – or look away.

“New Day Will Rise” rose to the second place at Eurovision, thanks to televotes.

Still wondering why Israel is in Eurovision? Read on!

The Shipwrecked (Heinrich Altherr)

Just a few steps from “War Picture” – as if Kunstmuseum Basel had anticipated a Eurovision-style split screen – hangs another emotionally charged canvas: “The Shipwrecked” (1928) by Swiss painter Heinrich Altherr.

This Expressionist oil on canvas plunges the viewer into a scene of human struggle and existential symbolism, but also resilience.

The central figure, tied to the boat by a rope, waves a piece of cloth, as if seeing saviors on the horizon, beyond the painting’s edge. The style is dark, the shadows are deep, and the atmosphere is intense.

Austria sent JJ (full name Johannes Pietsch) to Eurovision, a countertenor displaying operatic vocals fused with electronic beats, in a parallel emotional voyage. “Wasted Love” was staged in stark black-and-white with digital waves crashing around him.  The cinematic staging mirrored Altherr’s stormy drama – a man adrift in emotional wreckage, still longing for connection.

The shipwrecked JJ, drowning in the ocean of his romantic feelings, found a lifeline in 436 points (258 from the jury, 178 from the televotes), sealing Austria’s third Eurovision victory.

Saint Gregory (Matthias Stomer)

Matthias Stomer, a Dutch master shaped by the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio, spent much of his artistic life under the patronage of the Italian Church, bringing saints and bible stories to the canvas.

“Saint Gregory” (17^th century) is a Baroque portrayal of one of the four great Latin Church Fathers, depicted with a vivid expression and gesture, and surrounded by books. Typical of Stomer’s Caravaggesque style, the painting uses a strong contrast between light and shadow, dramatizing it with the presence of a dove, the Holy Spirit incarnate.

Four centuries later, light once again became scripture on stage, as Ukraine’s Ziferblat brought “Bird of Pray” to the Eurovision spotlight.

The bird symbol, as well as the use of light magic (literally a light-transfer trick between fingertips), appeared central in their performance.

In a powerful staging, a truss of lights hovered over the stage as if it were a bird’s wings, a visual emphasizing migration and survival, the country’s burning struggles.

Ziferblat flew to eighth place at Eurovision.

Portraits of the Zurich Standard-Bearer Jacob Schwytzer and his wife Elsbeth Lochmann (Tobias Stimmer)

Painted in 1564 by Tobias Stimmer, portraits of the Zurich Standard-Bearer Jacob Schwytzer and his wife Elsbeth Lochmann are a fine example of Swiss Renaissance portraiture, exposing the growing self-awareness and status of the Zurich bourgeoisie at the time.

The Zurich banner bearer and granary caretaker stands in a commanding pose, in rich attire that highlights his social standing, pride, and masculine authority. His wife’s portrait is a complementary one, presenting her in elegant clothing, reinforcing the couple’s prestige and wealth.

The decision to become immortal through larger-than-life full-length portraits was bursting with self-confidence, not an ordinary thing in the period.

Fast forward 461 years. Shkodra Elektronike, Albania’s duo that blends traditional music with modern electronic beats, exists in a vastly different artistic context. Still, their Eurovision performance of “Zjerm” mirrored a similar bold authority, care for identity, and a color dichotomy of red and black, representing male and female energies that fit together, yet barely touch, like those twin portraits.

Albania tied with Ukraine for 8th place in the Grand Final, but in terms of commanding presence and aesthetic conviction, they easily stood their own ground – much like the bourgeoisie of Zurich once did, centuries ago.

Warrior with Halberd (Ferdinand Hodler) & The Queen of Sheba’s Visit to Solomon (Jan Davidsz. Remeeus)

“Warrior with Halberd” (1898) is another work of Bern-born painter Ferdinand Hodler in Kunstmuseum Basel’s possession. Depicting a standing warrior in a heroic, sculptural posture, holding a traditional medieval pole weapon, this oil on canvas is an example of Hodler’s series embodying national pride.

With a similar commanding presence, memorable costume(s), and well, a moustache, Australia’s Eurovision warrior Go-Jo (real name Marty Zambotto) tried to win the crowds with his “Milkshake Man” song. The difference is that down under, warriors eventually take off their clothes, and then suggest using different kinds of weapons, those that splatter milk instead of blood. Was that milk, hm?

“The Queen of Sheba’s Visit to Solomon” (early 17^th century), painted by Jan Davidsz. Remeeus, also resonates with Go-Jo’s act. A tale of diplomacy, according to a legend, ends up as a romantic relationship that starts centuries of the Solomonic dynasty ruling Ethiopia (learn more about the Aksumite Empire’s myths here).

Simply put, all roads lead to a giant high-speed blender, a materialized thirst trap, where you’ll bow because he “can tell you want a taste of the milkshake man”.

Despite his charismatic magnetism and energetic performance, Go-Jo narrowly missed a spot in Eurovision’s Grand Final, finishing 11^th in his Semi.

Portrait of Erich Lederer (Egon Schiele) & The Bath at Leuk (Hans Bock the Elder)

Egon Schiele’s “Portrait of Erich Lederer” (1912-1913) is a masterclass in Viennese Expressionist portraiture. This oil on canvas is presented in a long vertical format, highlighting the subject’s stature.

Erich, the son of August Lederer, a major patron of Gustav Klimt, who introduced Schiele to the family, has piercing eyes, gazing at the observer, with a hand confidently resting on his hip. Contrasted by his formal attire is Erich’s aristocratic, pale skin. He could almost be Scandinavian.

And he is perfectly dressed for the sauna, at least if we ask the fully buttoned-up KAJ, Sweden’s representatives on the 2025 Eurovision. Their entry, “Bara Bada Bastu” (translating loosely as “Just Take a Sauna”) was performed as a wild, sauna-themed spectacle, which they executed in very formal attire.

“The Bath at Leuk” (1597), possibly inspired by Leukerbad, a famous Swiss thermal spa, and one of the most famous wild baths of the period, is Kunstmuseum’s art piece celebrating a popular pastime that combines hygiene, relaxation, socializing, and entertainment.

German painter Hans Bock the Elder showcased men and women bathing, gossiping, and even flirting together. In a place bustling with naked bathers, just like in “Bara Bada Bastu”, three fully clothed (we could even say – overdressed) men observe the scene.

The first Finnish act to represent Sweden managed to secure a steamy fourth place at Eurovision.

The Bath at Leuk (Hans Bock the Elder) – again

Let’s not towel off “The Bath at Leuk” just yet. After all, if Swedes were singing about a sauna, these were Finnish Swedes singing about – Finnish sauna.

Finland proper sent Erika Vikman to Eurovision, a pop provocateur who brought a different kind of heat.

Her entry “Ich komme” (“I’m Coming”) leaned hard into sexual innuendo – so hard, in fact, that Eurovision’s official site politely translated the lyric “grab my ass” into a more palatable “hold on to me tight”. Costume modifications were also requested from Erika: apparently, there are limits to how much thigh Europe can handle at 9 pm.

Similarly, “The Bath at Leuk” with its nude interacting visitors was deemed too controversial when Kunstmuseum acquired it in 1872. Subtle erotic allusions to what’s really going on in public baths were too much for puritan Baslers. The painting was initially gathering dust in the conservator’s office.

Art is speaking about true life, and sometimes it’s about seeking sensual pleasures. Sooner or later, it comes in front of consumers.

Erika came in 11^th place, but true Eurovision fans know that some acts, like certain paintings, are too bold to be measured by placement alone.

Ulysses Threatening Circe (Jacob Jordaens)

Finland wasn’t the only country to ruffle Eurovision’s moral feathers this year. Malta’s Miriana Conte was forced to rename her provocative track from “Serving Kant” to just “Serving”, so its explicit-sounding pronunciation wouldn’t upset sensitive ears.

But where were we in Kunstmuseum Basel? Ah, yes, “Ulysses Threatening Circe” (1630-1635)…

We have a dramatic Baroque painting from Flemish artist Jacob Jordaens, capturing a critical moment from Homer’s “Odyssey”.  Ulysses (Odysseus) stands above Circe with a raised sword, commanding her to reverse the spell on his men. It is Circe’s magic that turned them into pigs, visible in the bottom corner.

Much like the mythical sorceress, Miriana Conte complied with the rules to stay in the game. She trimmed her lyrics that provoked otherwise blameless individuals, making them grunt and oink. Hopefully, they didn’t watch that sensual choreography of the final performance.

In a struggle between power and magic, pure force might have won, but this didn’t stop the audience from filling in the gap in the song’s magic potion formula, loud and clear. Hear how it sounds when you don’t mute your audience – Arena Plus attendees serving “Kant” in this YouTube short!

Malta’s result in Eurovision’s Grand Final was 17^th place, but Miriana remained undefeated. Diva not down!

Malta is sinking. Check out the things to do in Malta while you can!

The Death of Pietro Aretino (Anselm Feuerbach)

“The Death of Pietro Aretino” (1854) is the kind of painting that screams: “What the hell just happened?” The Italian Renaissance poet, known for his biting wit and scandalous verse, is shown collapsing backward at a feast – a dramatic exit!

German painter Anselm Feuerbach had grand hopes that the Prince Regent would buy the painting for the Karlsruhe collection, but the Acquisition Commission bluntly rejected it. “The regent is just a child in art matters”, disappointed Feuerbach wrote.

On Eurovision, Princ (not Regent, real name Stefan Zdravković) represented Serbia with “Mila”, a ballad mourning an unrequited love. The lyrics invoked the imagery of the last supper and a descent into the arms of Hades, as the protagonist was left with only memories for Mila, who “brought life back from the edge”.

In a dramatic Eurovision staging, the long-haired Princ echoed Aretino’s fragile posture, taking a theatrical nosedive. The dancers dragged him across the floor, which highlighted his surrender to personal tragedy. It also made the cleaning crew’s job easier, with one less performer to mop up after.

Despite the impassioned performance, Princ didn’t manage to impress Eurovision’s own Acquisition Commission in the Semi-Final. “We gave our all, I left my heart on stage, and I hope you felt it”, Princ commented.

Play of the Nereides (Arnold Böcklin)

“Play of the Nereides” (1886) is another oil on canvas from Kunstmuseum’s unofficial “What the hell just happened?” collection.

The Swiss symbolist Arnold Böcklin, fittingly Basel-born, produced a dreamlike aquatic scene, populating it with nymphs, mythological sea creatures. The Nereides twist and twirl in the waves as an image of freedom, vitality, and untamed beauty.

The girl group Remember Monday (UK) brought a similarly vibrant whirlpool of energy to the Eurovision stage.

Their genre-bending “What the Hell Just Happened?” delivered cascading harmonies, fluid, synchronized, and dynamic like Böcklin’s nymphs.

Equally playful and with expressive gestures, Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele might have made us all remember Monday, but also helped us forget Saturday. In the Grand Final of Eurovision, the public awarded them a neat nul points. Fortunately, the jury threw them a lifebuoy: 88 points, enough to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the scoreboard. They finished 19th.

Children Making Music Overheard by a Nymph (Anselm Feuerbach)

Another of Feuerbach’s classicist masterpieces, “Children Making Music Overheard by a Nymph” (1864), depicts youngsters playing a string instrument, unaware of the presence of a curious nymph lurking beyond the trees.

It’s a pastoral daydream – myth meets musical innocence – wrapped up in Feuerbach’s romanticized realism and fascination with classical art.

Representing Feurbach’s homeland, Germany, a young sibling duo, Abor & Tynna, brought a fresh, urban sound to Eurovision with their infectiously rhythmic song “Baller”. It’s still about being watched while making music – this time by Europe and half the internet instead of a nymph.

They also paid homage to their classical upbringing, coming up with an act that fused modern electro-pop with cello riffs.

“Ich ballalalalalalaler Löcher in die Nacht” (“I shoot holes into the night”) might not make complete grammatical sense, but Europe found it weirdly hypnotic. Much like Feuerbach’s nymph, they couldn’t help but peek in.

Germany’s shot landed in a solid 15^th place in the Grand Final.

Death and the Woman (Hans Baldung Grien) & Untitled (There is no more unfortunate being under the sun than a fetishist who longs for a woman’s slipper and has to make do with a whole woman, K.K.: F) (Rosemarie Trockel)

“Death and the Woman” (1520-1525) shows a decaying skeletal figure firmly gripping a terrified woman from behind. Once it arrives, death is inevitable, and clinging.

The theme of mortality was very common in Hans Baldung Grien’s oeuvre. This German Renaissance artist frequently depicted a grotesque personification of death next to young women, warning against the transience of life and worldly pleasures.

“How Much Time Do We Have Left”, Klemen Slakonja asked exactly five centuries later. His wife, actress Mojca Fatur, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The question eventually became a song about shared vulnerability, representing Slovenia at the 69^th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel.

Klemen’s touching performance had a minimalist yet powerful staging. In one moment, he embraced his personal emotional collapse literally, and sang suspended upside down for thirty seconds. Perhaps a nod to life turned on its head, or to the art of holding on when the world flips.

As I descended to the underground passage in order to get to the Kunstmuseum Basel extension (Neubau), a hanging seal suddenly felt familiar. The unnamed work by German visual artist Rosemarie Trockel actually had quite a long title that quoted Austrian satirist Karl Kraus: “Untitled (There is no more unfortunate being under the sun than a fetishist who longs for a woman’s slipper and has to make do with a whole woman, K.K.:F)” (1991).

Suspended by its hind legs on a chain, as if it’s dragged aboard a ship, the seal’s inverted posture referenced brutal hunting practices. The bronze animal wore a synthetic-hair collar, possibly symbolizing consumerism, the human desire to possess everything that surrounds us.

From Baldung’s bony embrace to Trockel’s brutal suspension, from a deathly grip to a life upside-down – these works remind us that art confronts.

Klemen’s song, with just 23 points, was sadly left hanging in the Semi-Final.

Portrait of a Woman: Saint Catherine (Lucas Cranach the Elder)

Lucas Cranach the Elder, a leading artist of the German Renaissance, created several portraits of Saint Catherine of Siena, an Italian mystic, influential theologian, ascetic, and stigmata. Cranach emphasized her devotion, wisdom, and martyrdom, aligning with Reformation-era ideals.

A notable example is a half-length “Portrait of a Woman: Saint Katherine” (1508), depicting a young woman in a prayer, dressed in black attire with a traditional Dutch bonnet. Her expression is serene, highlighted by soft contours and delicate shading.

I’m not sure what was the thing that Nina Žižić wore while performing her Eurovision entry for Montenegro. After a walk through Kunstmuseum Basel, the best match I could find was this Dutch cap worn by Saint Catherine.

With “Dobrodošli” (“Welcome”), Nina did appear like a martyr; she even had a bruise on her forearm, probably a bit more discreet than Catherine’s wounds of Christ. Blindfolded, Nina could’ve also potentially been a goddess of justice, encircled by an aura of a gigantic white pillow.

If not a martyr herself, Nina at least sang to them: “Put a smile on your face, endure it all, it’ll pass.”

Montenegro had to endure just 12 points from the televotes, thus finishing last in Semi-Final 2.

Phallic Shoe (Yayoi Kusama)

Besides recognizable repetitive polka dots, Yayoi Kusama’s artistic world is covered in phallic shapes. What started as a personal fear of sex continued as an artistic obsession with phalluses.

Encased in a glass box like a possibly cursed Cinderella relic, “Phallic Shoe” (1966) is a soft sculpture, basically a high-heeled shoe filled with phallic forms (as precise as it gets when the author suffers from phallophobia, and just possibly – potatophilia). Japanese artist aimed to make this object a symbol of male fantasies and female anxieties.

Topics of fashion and societal expectations collided in the Eurovision performance of Justyna Steczkowska for Poland. Her song “Gaja”, celebrating the goddess of Earth and possibly Westeros, unfolded through a very dynamic dance choreography. Three out of four performers were men, and yet all of them wore extremely high heels.

Coming from the possibly least LGBTQ-friendly EU country (ranking just slightly better – or less worse – than Romania), Justyna’s artistic proposition managed to confuse as probably the gayest-looking act of Eurovision 2025 (that’s gayest as in gay, not Gaja).

Maybe that’s the combo of fear and fascination Kusama talked about, a thin, permeable line that separates homophobia from homo-desire.

Skilled in stilettos, Poland ran to the 16^th place in Eurovision’s Grand Final.

Film Lumière n˚765, 1 – Danse serpentine, II (Anonymous)

Next, I entered a room where an early cinematic work by Louis and Auguste Lumière was projected on the wall. “Film Lumière n˚765, 1 – Danse serpentine, II” (1897-1899) captures a dance style popularized by Loïe Fuller, an American Symbolist performer known for her flowing fabric movements and innovative stage lighting.

The dancer twirled her voluminous semi-transparent robes, creating hypnotic, fluid shapes that constantly changed colors. Of course, we cannot witness the entirety of the craze the Butterfly-woman caused in Paris music halls, simply because of the limits of the first cinematograph, which recorded moving images in black and white. But in this version, Lumière brothers hand-colored the film frame by frame, letting us imagine the kaleidoscopic euphoria the novelty performance unleashed on Belle Époque audiences.

More than a century later, Denmark’s Sissal also aimed at delivering a hypnotic theatrical experience at Eurovision 2025 with her song “Hallucination”.

There were no color changes in the Danish dreamlike blue universe. But Sissal did use a wind machine to whip her long translucent train into a fluid sculpture of air, as well as surreal effects provided by her moon-booted dancers executing gravity-defying lean moves.

Though some considered Denmark a dark horse for a surprise victory, Sissal was eventually wind-swept to 23^rd place on the scoreboard.

Motorboat (Gerhard Richter)

At first glance, “Motorboat” (1965) appears to be a blurry black-and-white photograph, until you realize it’s an oil painting. Part of the New European Painting art movement, this figurative painting is, however, based on a real photograph, originally used in an ad for Kodak Instamatic camera.

German visual artist Gerhard Richter is known for blending realism with abstraction by using a photo-painting technique. He deliberately softened the image of a group of people enjoying a ride on the boat. This way, he created a sense of movement and fleeting moments, as well as stimulated an exploration of memory and perception.

On the Eurovision stage, an equally joyful ride was delivered by Iceland’s sibling captains called VÆB. With “RÓA”, brothers Matthías Davíð and Hálfdán Helgi Matthíasson rowed their pop-electronic vessel through a nautical fantasy.

A cheerful group of friends cruised through an uplifting sea adventure that combined the action on stage with visual effects added for at-home audiences.

While they easily navigated through the Semi-Final (finishing 6^th), VÆB’s boat sank to the 25^th (second-to-last) place in the Grand Final.

Large Mold Picture (Dieter Roth)

Dieter Roth was a Swiss artist who didn’t just think outside the box – he fermented it. Famous for using organic materials like chocolate, yogurt, and bread, Roth embraced decomposition and decay as part of the creative process.

His “Large Mold Picture” (1969), exhibited at Kunstmuseum Basel, is exactly what it sounds like: a layered sandwich of moldy matter sealed between glass panels. It’s art that evolves with fungal blooms, reminding us of the ephemeral nature of nature. Technically, it is a moldy mold of mold.

Similarly unconventional Marko Bošnjak, who represented Croatia at Eurovision 2025, also brought something that wasn’t easy to digest. His song “Poison Cake” was a haunting, metaphor-heavy tale of vengeance served dark and cold.

You don’t hear songwriters framing revenge as their central theme that often. Let’s just say that poisoning someone as a method of retaliation is a demon typically left unsung.

While Roth’s work was sometimes dismissed as messy, and many struggled to see its artistic value, Bošnjak also polarized the audience, struggling to fully connect with Eurovision juries and the viewers. Despite delivering a passionate performance, Croatia didn’t qualify for the Eurovision final.

If Marko could learn something from Dieter, the lesson would be that bold and boundary-pushing art pieces ripen with time. Or rot. Sometimes, it’s all the same.

Not all Croatian cakes are there to poison you. Take a look at the recipe for Rab Island's delicacy - Rapska torta!

Aetas aurea (Medardo Rosso)

“Aetas aurea” (1886), Latin for “The Golden Age”, is a wax sculpture that portrays a mother with a son in an intimate moment.

Italian sculptor Medardo Rosso, who moved to Paris, where he befriended and influenced Auguste Rodin, the father of modern sculpture, used his own wife Giuditta Pozzi and son Francesco as models for this double portrait.

The mother is kissing the boy, their faces in a tender embrace, melting into each other. It’s an image of maternal love and unity, a utopia of perfect happiness, as the title suggests.

For this “Aetas Aurea”, Rosso chose an unusual medium – wax. Unlike traditional marble or bronze, this material reinforces the idea of fragility and the fleeting nature of the moment.

Louane from France knows all about the ever-shifting sands of time slipping through one’s fingers. For “Maman”, a heartfelt ballad dedicated to her late mother, the French Eurovision act brought a real sandstorm to the stage, adding to the intimate story of grief, healing, and motherhood.

Unlike the Polish act, Louane performed her song barefoot, in a simple black dress, putting an accent on her raw, powerful vocals.

France placed 7^th in the Grand Final.

Torso of the Walking Man (Auguste Rodin)

Auguste Rodin wasn’t just Medardo Rosso’s friend or rival; he admired the work of the innovative Italian sculptor. It’s fitting, then, that the special exhibition “The Invention of Modern Sculpture” in Kunstmuseum’s new building brings the two together. Alongside Rosso’s “Portrait of Henri Rouart” (1890) and Cézanne’s “Five Bathers”, Rodin’s “Torso” (1878-1879) is shown.

This torso from the study for Saint John the Baptist, also known as “Torso of the Walking Man”, is one of Rodin’s best-known compositions. Over two decades, he would work on transforming this rough-surface, fragmented bronze sculpture, detached from its arms and head (it was Saint John after all!). It is raw, muscular, and gloriously incomplete, embodying movement more powerfully than most whole statues ever could.

Swiss Eurovision had its own walking man with a missing upper wardrobe – PARG a.k.a. Pargev Vardanian from Armenia. Shirtless, just smeared with some black paint, brimming with primal energy instead of adhering to classical perfection, the singer marched across a giant treadmill during his performance of “Survivor”. It’s the closest a human could get to being static like a sculpture, yet in motion, like Rodin’s sculpture.

“I’m a survivor, stay aliver, do or die in my prime”, our moving torso sang, emphasizing themes of struggle. Struggle with English included.

Armenia walked (and walked and walked) to the 20^th place in the Grand Final.

Fire (A. R. Penck)

A. R. Penck (born Ralf Winkler), a leading voice of German Neo-Expressionism, forged a peculiar visual language that recalls primitive art normally seen in caves.
“Fire” (1967-1968), oil on canvas, brings his signature Standart figures (simplified, stick-like forms) that symbolize universal human struggles.

Fire is often present in Penck’s work, as an element of destruction, transformation, and renewal – a reflection of his experiences growing up in divided Germany, during the Cold War.

Norway’s Kyle Alessandro started his fire on the Eurovision stage with “Lighter”, a flammable song that combines pop, baroque, and folk sensibilities. Dressed in metallic armor, symbolizing his strength and resilience, the artist explored the themes of self-reliance and overcoming adversities, following the advice received from his cancer-diagnosed mother: “Never lose your light!”

Despite the energetic stage presence that received a warm reception at the venue (those flame projectors help!), Kyle finally ranked 18^th at Basel Eurovision.

Die Mütter (Käthe Kollwitz)

“Die Mütter” (1921-1922) or “The Mothers” is Käthe Kollwitz’s powerful black-and-white woodcut from her “Krieg” (“War”) series. Seven woodcuts were created in response to the catastrophic impact of World War I, and as a resistance act against Germany’s culture of military sacrifice.

The artist’s piece doesn’t just reflect her deep pacifist convictions, but also a personal grief. She lost her younger son, Peter, on a battlefield in Flanders, in the early months of the war.

The composition forms a protective wall of mothers, women united in shielding their children in a tight defensive circle, refusing to give them up to future wars. This activist work condemns militarism and the glorification of sacrifice.

Now, Claude Kiambe, who represented the Netherlands at Eurovision, arrived in the country as a refugee, fleeing from the political unrest in his homeland, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

His emotionally soaked song “C’est la vie” was an ode to his mother, a woman who shielded her children to secure them a future of better possibilities. Life is unpredictable, but one should embrace it, his mother’s advice said.

The juries embraced Claude’s message, but televoters were more reserved, giving him just 42 points. He landed in 12^th place overall. Well, c’est la vie.

KUNSTMUSEUM BASEL INFO

Kunstmuseum Basel address

Hauptbau – the main building: St. Alban-Graben 16
Neubau - the new building: St. Alban-Graben 20
Gegenwart - the contemporary art building: St. Alban-Rheinweg 60

Parking near Kunstmuseum Basel

Kunstmuseum Basel has its own underground car park that can fit 350 vehicles. It’s located at Luftgässlein 4.

The basic price for the parking is CHF 3 per hour.

Opening hours

Monday: closed
Tuesday-Sunday: 10 am – 6 pm
Wednesday: 10 am – 8 pm

How long do you need for Kunstmuseum Basel?

A visit to the Kunstmuseum Basel typically takes 2 to 3 hours, depending on how deeply you want to explore its vast collection.

If you're an art enthusiast, you might want to spend half a day in museum’s three buildings, to fully appreciate the masterpieces spanning from the 15th century to contemporary art.

The historical collection is housed at the Hauptbau, special exhibitions and art from the collection after 1950 at the Neubau, while contemporary art from 1960s onwards can be found at the Gegenwart.

Kunstmuseum Basel ticket price

Adults 20 years and older: CHF 25
Students: CHF 12
Teenagers: CHF 12
Children: free entrance
With Basel Card: CHF 12.50

On working days, the last operating hour is happy hour at Kunstmuseum Basel. This means you can visit its main collection free of charge on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 5 to 6 pm, as well as on Wednesday from 7 to 8 pm.

Free entrance at Kunstmuseum Basel is also available every first Sunday of the month.

Want to save even more? Check out these free things to do in Basel!

Chasing Eurovision among the Kunstmuseum Basel artworks – Conclusion

Eurovision 2025 took over Basel for a week. But some of these performances had a longer-lasting potential. So we moved the contestants into the Kunstmuseum, the world’s oldest public art collection.

Not every act may pass the test of time. Some will fade into the fog of forgotten Grand Finals. Others might be debated for years.

Whether displayed on a museum wall or broadcast on Europe’s flashiest stage, art can be emotional, provocative, and occasionally misunderstood by the general public

From Kusama’s phallic heels to Rodin’s walking torso, from barefoot ballads to moon-booted hallucinations, each performance found its artistic twin among the museum’s paintings and sculptures.

These Eurovision-Kunstmuseum pairings might not be perfect soulmates. But there’s something to learn from connecting the dots in this cultural crossover: Whether displayed on a museum wall or broadcast on Europe’s flashiest stage, art can be emotional, provocative, and occasionally misunderstood by the general public.

One person’s ‘meh’ is another’s masterpiece. Sometimes, it takes centuries to validate the votes given to any artwork. So only time will tell whether this year’s Eurovision stories were worth framing.

Some acts missing? Explore Kunstmusem Basel artworks by yourself, and make your own perfect pairs!
Liked the article on Eurovision-museum match-ups? Pin it for later!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on them and make a purchase, Pipeaway may make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our work!

The authors of all photographs are mentioned in image titles and Alt Text descriptions. In order of appearance, these are:

Ivan Kralj - photographs of all Kunstmuseum Basel artworks and museum's gift shop
Sarah Louise Bennett / EBU - Lucio Corsi, Tautumeitas, Red Sebastian, Shkodra Elektronike, KAJ (II), Miriana Conte, Nina Žižić, Sissal, VÆB, Kyle Alessandro
Alma Bengtsson / EBU - Eurovision alphorns, Yuval Raphael (I), Ziferblat, Go-Jo, KAJ (I), Erika Vikman, Princ, Remember Monday, Abor & Tynna, Klemen, Justyna Steczkowska, Marko Bošnjak, Louane, PARG, Claude
Corinne Cumming / EBU - Melody, Tommy Cash, Zoë Më, Yuval Raphael (II), JJ

The post Kunstmuseum Basel Artworks Matched With Eurovision Songs appeared first on Pipeaway.

For two decades already, an extraordinary museum on Jeju Island plays a major role in the sex education of the people of South Korea. Its name is Jeju Loveland Sculpture Park, and it exhibits some 140 Korean NSFW sculptures of human figures, engaging in the saucy act of sex.

Sure, visitors are mainly giggling in front of the unusual display of statues having sex, but then again – in what school do you not see classmates bursting into laughter at something that the teacher said?

I traveled to the Love Land, an open-air school of sex positions and erotic art. Between a museum and an amusement park, Jeju Loveland is a fun ride to enjoy.

But beware of those pictures – they are definitely Korean NSFW. Scroll down to the Jeju Loveland photo gallery at the end of the article if South Korea’s sex park makes you impatient.

Welcome to the notorious Korean erotic theme park!

For finding love in Europe, visit these heart-shaped islands of Croatia! Or explore the entire Adriatic coastline on an epic honeymoon!

Jeju Loveland, or Kama Sutra in the Korean way

An enormous woman, supposedly 9 meters tall, writhes in joy at the very entrance of Jeju Loveland. Painted in gold, she might be alone, but her craving for physical attention is real.

As if we have entered someone’s private bedroom, we witness an orgasmic spasm. The artwork’s title is “Desire”, and it is quite a tame introduction to this Korean sex park, a jungle of human sexuality that even Kama Sutra may find raunchy.

Visitors follow the penis-shaped arrows, and the very illustrative sexual manual unfolds in 3D.

The variety of sexual positions at this Korean erotic park is impressive! Dozens of human figures, even some dogs and pigs, display the old and some new ideas for your own sexual aerobics at home.

“Jeju Loveland is a place where imagination can run wild”, the motto boasts. But while the giggling crowds of young and old may suggest that this is just a humorous sex-themed park, the management promises much more! “Jeju Loveland provides a proper approach to sex culture”, they say.

Different cultures celebrate the art of love in different ways. These are the alternatives to Valentine's Day celebrations!

Jeju, Korean sex education island

The idea of subtle sex education was conceived here in the 1970s. As most Koreans were not allowed to travel abroad until the 1990s, the warm Jeju in the South became the prime honeymoon island.

In this period, families were arranging marriages, and newlyweds sometimes didn’t even know each other properly. Jeju Island was the place to meet and interact with your life partner, far away from family pressure.

The famous British journalist Simon Winchester reported that, in the late 1980s, the hotels on Jeju Island were employing “professional icebreakers”. Their role was to help the freshly married couples relax, through a series of entertaining erotic games, which included lap dances, but didn’t stop there. The writer comments that one of these hotel entertainers probably deflowered more women than any other man in Asia.

Korean sex island was born.

The prevailing image of Asia as a conservative place is being broken in Japan too. Check how they celebrate his majesty of the penis at Kanamara Matsuri religious festival!

Two decades of Korean NSFW sex art at Jeju Loveland

Love Land sculpture park opened in Jeju on November 16, 2004. Korea’s erotic theme park was a product of two years of hard work.

Two dozen graduates of Hongik University in Seoul, a Korean prime art school, gave their best in interpreting the wealth of human sex life.

While one of the intentions was indeed the education of the public, underage visitors to Jeju Loveland were not permitted. That’s right, sexual training in Korea starts only when you enter your 20s!

In the world of enlarged phalluses and labia carved in stone, your social inhibitions quickly break

From the giant marble penis that spurts water which bounces off the ground, to miniature dioramas that depict the sexual life of Koreans in everyday situations, sex in Jeju Loveland comes in all sizes and shapes.

Well, almost all! In a country that still sees homosexuality as a taboo, the exposition is fairly heteronormative. Except for a diorama presenting men in jjimjilbang, the traditional Korean spa, where one of them is lying down with an erection in an all-male environment, Jeju Island sex park dominantly depicts heterosexual encounters.

When in Seoul, these are the best jjimjilbangs you should visit!

On almost 40 thousand square meters of Jeju Loveland, you can experience what Der Spiegel called “salacious Disneyland”.

While most sex statues are made for observation, many call for interaction. Lone male and female sculptures in Jeju Loveland just scream for your involvement, while your friends snap pictures for Instagram.

In Jeju xxx world of enlarged phalluses and labia carved in stone, your social inhibitions quickly break. By the end of the erotic park tour, you will want to jump on that bicycle with pedaling-generated masturbation, and pedal until the happy end!

But does Korean sex park really present erotic – art?

From gloryholes to car sex, this soft porn sculpture park is a vast photo zone.

Jeju Loveland might defend its educative role by throwing in a few mythological references or by extending the creative variations of threesome intercourse.

But in the end, is it just an acceptable excuse for visiting a sex shop? Is South Korea’s sex amusement park not more than a smart way of igniting the visitors’ need for kinky adult toys, readily available in the museum’s gift shop?

The description plates next to the Love Land statues do not reveal the names of the sculptors. It is almost as if authorship is not essential. Jeju Loveland sculptures drown in anonymity.

So is this erotic theme park really a museum, or more of a playground? It is certainly a rare example of a sculpture exhibition that encourages visitors to touch the art.

Before leaving Jeju Loveland, we are invited to throw our spare coins into a goldfish pond, where hopefully a penis-shaped fountain may fulfill our wishes.

I decide to visit the Jeju sex museum’s restroom instead. On the male toilet, the door handle is in the shape of female breasts. On the door of the female bathroom, the handle is in the form of a penis in an erection. One could say that it is coherent exploitation of the sex theme. But there is some awkward trashiness that blooms in this example.

While I relieve at the urinal, my pee slowly spills out of the bottom of the thing and floods the area that I thought was wet with water. That was all the fountain luck I needed!

To learn more about the context of sex life in South Korea, check out what this documentary on VICE has to say about Jeju Loveland!

JEJU LOVELAND ESSENTIALS

Where is Jeju Island?

Jeju Island is the southernmost island of South Korea. It lies in the Korea Strait, the sea passage between South Korea and Japan.

Going from Seoul to Jeju Island is straightforward. A direct flight is just 70 minutes long, and there are more than 90 flights per day!

For the best available prices of flight tickets, book your Jeju trip here!

How to get to Jeju Loveland?

Jeju Loveland is located in the northern part of the island, just a 15-minute ride away from Jeju International Airport.

The taxi ride from Jeju Airport to Love Land should cost you less than 10.000 KRW (8 Euros).

If you are coming from Jeju City to Love Land, you can take bus number 240 (the blue one) at Jeju Bus Terminal. You should exit at the Jeju Museum of Art. The theme park Jeju Loveland is some 550 meters away from this bus stop.

Jeju Loveland admission fee

Jeju Loveland ticket costs 12.000 KRW (9 Euros).

If you’d like a discount on the Jeju Loveland admission fee, you should form a group of 30, and then the price would be 11.000 Won.

Jeju Loveland entrance fee for seniors costs 10.000 Won, while if they form a group of 30, the price will drop to 9.000 Won (7 Euros).

All in all, the discounts at the Korean NSFW garden do not seem to be significant, and the conditions are strict.

Jeju Loveland operating hours

The opening hours for Jeju Loveland are 9 am to midnight. The last admission to the sculpture park is at 11 pm. That means that even for locals working long hours, Korean NSFW park can secure some much-needed vent.

If you are visiting Jeju Loveland at night, you will find the park illuminated, which is a very different experience.

In any case, allow yourself one hour for the visit to the South Korean sex theme park, one of the most popular Jeju Island tourist attractions!

Where to stay in Jeju?

If you want to stay close to the park, check the best accommodation offers in the Jeju Loveland area here.

Best time to visit Jeju

The warmest months to visit Jeju Island are July to September. In August, the daily temperature on the Korean island of desire might be from 26 to 31 degrees Celsius.

The busiest (and the most expensive) months in Jeju are January, May, and April. For lower prices, check December.

No words can replace what the images can communicate.
To learn more about Jeju’s most explicit theme park, explore these sexual sculptures in our Jeju Loveland photo gallery!

 

Would you like to visit Jeju Loveland, the infamous Korean NSFW sex park on Jeju Island?
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This post was originally published on February 14th, 2019, and was updated on April 5th, 2023.

Disclosure: This post might contain affiliate links, which means if you click on them and make a purchase, Pipeaway might make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our work!

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Charlie Chaplin will always be remembered as the Little Tramp, a lonely but romantic dreamer with a small mustache and big shoes

The official cause of death of the movie legend was – a stroke. Charlie Chaplin was 88, and for some years, his health has been deteriorating, impacting his ability to see, hear, speak, and move.

Born under the name Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr., the English silent movie comedian made an immense impact on the world of cinema, spreading Hollywood’s fame around the globe. With a renaissance talent, he was all-in-one; an actor, director, producer, choreographer, and composer.

The contribution of Charlie Chaplin to world cinema will always be remembered for the Little Tramp character, a lonely but romantic dreamer with a small mustache and big shoes. After the most memorable non-verbal creations in “The Gold Rush” (1925), “The Circus” (1928), “City Lights” (1931), and “Modern Times” (1936), he finally let the speech into his world in “The Great Dictator” (1940). In this historic movie, Chaplin made fun of the most dangerous mustache-bearer ever, something American movie studios didn’t want to support at the time.

Opposing Adolf Hitler was not enough to prove that Charlie Chaplin was on the right side of history. His political engagement during World War II was labeled as communist activity, and together with his involvement with much younger wives, it produced a public backlash in the States. Helped by the FBI and CIA, Charlie Chaplin was canceled long before woke culture became a trendy weapon.

After the US revoked his visa in 1952, Chaplin’s family moved to Switzerland, where he would spend the last 25 years of his life.

Another cultural icon, Freddie Mercury, also found his refuge in Vevey's neighborhood. If you love Queen, this is what you have to see in Montreux!

Top 9 things to do in Vevey for Charlie Chaplin fans

1. Immerse yourself in Chaplin’s World Studio

In Corsier-sur-Vevey, at Rte de Fenil 2, next to Charlie Chaplin’s final home, a museum celebrating his life opened on April 17^th, 2016.

Hollywood-style studio experience starts as a movie projection in a small cinema that quickly teleports you to the streets of London, where Chaplin spent his poverty-stricken childhood. You step behind the screen and experience the literal magic of immersion with the Oscar-awarded artwork of the world-famous legend.

Exploring the variety of museum sections, from the circus ring to Hollywood Boulevard, one gets in close contact with the sets of the movie classics. You can take a selfie in the cabin from “The Gold Rush” or with the cogs from “Modern Times”. You can see the precious exhibits of Chaplin’s original bowler hat, cane and shoes, but also check out how your own Tramp character would look in a tight jacket and baggy trousers.

Collaboration with Grévin wax museum enabled an innovative scene design populated with more than 30 wax figures. The collection includes the artists Chaplin’s iconic character inspired, such as Roberto Benigni, Federico Fellini, and Michael Jackson. Did you know that Chaplin was an idol of the king of pop? Supposedly, even the famous Jackson’s Moonwalk was inspired by Chaplin’s dance during the “Nonsense” song at the end of “Modern Times”!

Charlie Chaplin was famous for doing all of his stunts himself, from falling through the roof to tripping down the stairs. And he would film again and again until he would get that perfect shot. In “The Circus”, he entered the lions’ cage 200 times, until the sequence was perfect. The museum nicely displays how Chaplin didn’t mind spending movie rolls for the best result; for instance, out of 135.000 meters of film for “The Kid”, only 1.600 meters made the final cut.

Who owns Chaplin’s World?

The entire Charlie Chaplin’s estate was purchased in 2008 by Genii Capital, a capital investment company based in Luxembourg. Together with the Swiss architect Philippe Meylan and Canadian museographer Yves Durand, they founded the Domaine du Manoir de Ban company. The museumChaplin’s World is today operated by Grévin, the subsidiary brand of Compagnie des Alpes that manages leisure projects from ski resorts to amusement parks.

Chaplin’s World opening hours

Chaplin’s World is open from 10 am to 7 pm in July and August. From April to June, as well as in September and October, the museum closes at 6 pm. From November to March, Charlie’s World closes another hour earlier, at 5 pm.

Chaplin’s World tickets

Entrance ticket for Charlie’s World costs 29 Francs, with discounts for children (19 CHF), seniors (27 CHF), students (25 CHF), and persons with disabilities (17-25 CHF). Kids below the age of 6 can experience the museum free of charge.

You can purchase your Chaplin’s World ticket here.

2. Visit Manoir de Ban, Charlie Chaplin’s home villa

On the place of former farmland, Charles Emile Henri de Scherer engaged local architect Philippe Franel to build the neoclassical mansion in the 1840s, then known as Champ de Ban. Later, an entire spectrum of people passed through the house, from watchmakers and industrialists to war refugees and American diplomats.

In September 1952, while sailing from New York to London, to attend the premiere of his newest movie “Limelight”, Charlie Chaplin found out that the USA, the country he lived in for four decades, revoked his re-entry permit. Following the advice of his half-brother Sydney, he decided to relocate to Switzerland. On New Year’s Eve, he purchased Manoir de Ban.

After the renovation, the manor had 19 rooms, more than enough to host the growing family (Oona and Charlie would end up having eight children), and even famous guests who would come for a visit (from Marlon Brando, Truman Capote, Pablo Casals and Yehudi Menuhin to Knie Circus performers and animals).

Especially interesting are the three ground floor rooms; the dining room, the sitting room, and the library, where Chaplin worked on screenplays for “A King in New York” and “A Countess from Hong Kong”, as well as the books “My Autobiography” and “My Life in Pictures”. These rooms have been preserved as they were in the 1970s, with mostly original furniture.

In the bathroom, one can find another Grévin’s wax figure, representing Chaplin’s good friend Albert Einstein, in his characteristic sticking-the-tongue-out pose. The Nobel laureate supposedly told Chaplin: “What I most admire about your art, is your universality. You don’t say a word, yet the world understands you!” The actor responded to Einstein: “True. But your glory is even greater! The whole world admires you, even though they don’t understand a word of what you say.”

For an even older piece of architecture, make a day trip to Chillon. The most famous castle in Switzerland is just 12 kilometers away.

3. Walk around Chaplin’s estate park

“With such happiness, I sometimes sit out on our terrace at sunset and look over a vast green lawn to the lake in the distance, and beyond the lake to the reassuring mountains, and in this mood think of nothing but enjoy their magnificent serenity.”

This is how Charlie Chaplin described the view from his terrace in “My Autobiography”, in1964.

He loved his roses and tulips, but also roe-deers, foxes, badgers, owls, and other birds that would visit the garden. Chaplin’s connection with the park was special.

The 14-hectare park on a sun-washed plateau above Vevey was a fun playground for Chaplin’s offspring. They would be exploring the grounds every day, running through the woods and climbing trees in the orchard.

The children recall Chaplin asking them not to walk on snow-covered grounds in winter, in order to preserve the pristine view that he admired so much.

Today, the estate is a peaceful area for walks among the century-old trees such as cypresses, pines, cedars, sequoias, beeches, elms, spruces, maples, and poplars. One can truly appreciate the nature that comforted the actor after he left America, describing it as a prison.

On April 16^th, 2017, 662 people dressed up as Little Tramps, put on their toothbrush mustaches, and showed up in this park, mimicking Charlie Chaplin’s characteristic walk. They set the world record for the largest gathering of Charlie Chaplin lookalikes.

But on July 10^th, 2022, during the passage of the famous bicycle race Tour de France nearby, another magnificent image left the estate. French artist Franck Bonneau celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the movie “The Kid” by creating a giant portrait of Charlot out of grass! The monumental land-art visual, seen only from the sky, covered 10 thousand square meters.

Check out Franck Bonneau’s impressive artwork on our Youtube channel! 

4. Admire murals on Chaplin Towers

In Quartier Gilamont, at the northernmost part of Avenue de Gilamont, two low-rent resident buildings pay tribute to Charlie Chaplin with monumental murals.

Previously neglected neighborhood, isolated and disconnected from the town center, with Chaplin Towers worked on reestablishing its identity.

The project was produced by CitéCréation, the company that creates emblematic monumental works all over the world for four decades now.

The artist behind 40-meter-tall images on the facades of Gilamont buildings is Franck Bouroullec.

Together with a colleague Sébastien Pridmore, in the summer of 2022, he created another, 16-meter tall mural of Charlie Chaplin in Vevey, at Rue de Lausanne 7.

 

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5. Take a selfie with the Charlie Chaplin statue

There is another, more easily accessible artwork inspired by Charlie Chaplin.

On the banks of Lac Leman, in between the Alimentarium food museum and the world’s tallest fork (an 8-meter sculpture in the lake, designed by Jean-Pierre Zaugg), there is a bronze statue of The Tramp.

The statue is the work of the British sculptor John Doubleday, and it has stood here since 1982.

Chaplin’s statue is a popular place to memorize in a selfie or two.

6. Pay respect at Charlie Chaplin’s grave

Charlie Chaplin has been buried in a grave at Cimetière de Corsier-sur-Vevey, Sur le Crêt 3. His first neighbor is Oona O’Neill, his beloved wife who joined him 14 years later.

While Chaplin’s final resting place is easy to find at this small cemetery, in 1978, it was a scene of a rather controversial event.

As soon as the winter started to fade, the two men executed a creepy plan. On March 1^st, Roman Wardas and Gantcho Ganev, two Eastern European car mechanics, dug out Chaplin’s grave and stole the coffin.

The grave-robbing duo thought they had a perfect plan. They would contact the widow and demand a ransom of 600 thousand dollars if she wanted the stolen body back.

Even if Chaplin’s net worth at the time of his death was estimated at 100 million dollars, Oona refused to welcome the demand. She said that her husband would’ve called the ransom request “ridiculous”.

Two and a half months later, police tracked Chaplin’s kidnappers while they were placing what had to be the 27^th call from a local phone booth.

They were arrested and prosecuted, and have expressed their apologies for the methods they used with the intention to solve their financial difficulties.

While Oona forgave them, Chaplin’s coffin was reburied, but now in a reinforced concrete grave that would hopefully deter future grave robbers.

7. Stay in Modern Times Hotel Vevey

If you are a true Charlie Chaplin fan, staying in Vevey would not be complete without spending a night in the hotel inspired by the movie legend’s classic – the Modern Times Hotel, at Chem. Du Genévrier 20.

This 4-star property offers modern rooms, in accordance with its name, of course. It has a grill restaurant with a bar and a large garden terrace, as well as a fitness center.

Modern Times Hotel is a so-called Minergie building, constructed with sustainable energy-saving in mind. It gets its electricity and warm water from solar panels, and guests with electric cars can charge them at designated charging stations.

If Chaplin-inspired décor in rooms and common places is not enough for you, you can join the movie star seated on the bench in front of the hotel.

The room rates start at 120 Euros, but there are even packages that include Chaplin’s World museum visit (with a limousine transfer!), as well as Chaplin-inspired gifts. For the actual prices for your desired dates, click here.

If you want to check out other accommodation options in Vevey, find the best prices here.

8. Eat in Auberge de L’Onde, Saint-Saphorin

Charlie Chaplin was a regular at this country-style brasserie/rotisserie in the center of Saint-Saphorin village, five kilometers far from his home. Every Sunday, he would bring his large family to Auberge de L’Onde for a lunch.

Supposedly, his favorite meals were tarragon-chicken and Provence-style frog legs.

Today, in the special room named Salon Chaplin, you can order a seasonal Chaplin Menu for 59 Francs. You will get amuse bouche, for starter – crispy egg, mushroom fricassee and caramel gruyère espuma, for the main dish – sautéed cockerel marinated in herbs with matchstick fries, and for dessert – fresh pear with hazelnut.

9. Finish your day with a movie at Cinema Rex

Rex Cinema in Vevey, Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau 6, was the place where Charlie Chaplin would come to test the soundtrack of his movies, but also the place where he would take the whole family to see new titles.

The first Swiss multi-screen cinema (well, with three screening halls) has been operating since 1933, and it is a historic place worth visiting.

You might not see Chaplin’s movies in regular repertoire, but if you want to experience “Avatar” dubbed in French, you’ll certainly have fun!

Is Chaplin’s World worth visiting?

Charlie Chaplin’s life story is dramatically inspiring, as it comes from a true man of the world, a unique filmmaker who defied definitions, and scared those who only accepted black-and-white classifications.

Chaplin’s World exposes how evergreen his cinematic world was, capable of traversing decades and still staying relevant

Hollywood fell in love with him, and then when he decided to raise his voice for political things that matter, turned back on him. He opposed nazi Germany, but Americans feared that his artistic protest could open doors to Soviet communism.

He didn’t pick sides, however. In his speech at Artists’ Front to Win the War in 1942, Chaplin said: “I’m not a citizen, I don’t need citizenship papers, and I’ve never had patriotism in that sense for any country, but I’m a patriot to humanity as a whole. I’m a citizen of the world. If the Four Freedoms mean anything after this war, we don’t bother about whether we are citizens of one country or another.”

But what he experienced after the war was that his mystical position as the “citizen of the world” was a perfect place to exercise the fruitless Cold War.

It is not unusual that he sought refuge in Switzerland, the country with whose (equally controversial) neutrality he could more easily align in those times. Vevey was his new home, a deserved place where he could easily escape from people, and find comfort in nature.

Chaplin’s World, and all other places in Vevey that pay homage to this great artist, expose how evergreen his cinematic world was, capable of traversing decades and still staying relevant.

Charlie Chaplin was an artist who spoke about his own past, but also about everyone’s present. He was not afraid about raising hard questions and giving them comic relief.

Surely, if he would live today, maybe his Little Tramp character would be Little Trump instead, a cinematic mirror that Hollywood prefers to avoid, bathing in fantastic Avatar and Marvel worlds.

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Disclosure: My Chaplin's World visit was complimentary, but all opinions are my own.

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Four years ago, I was standing in the streets of Tokyo, the city where the future has already arrived. In front of me, a gigantic Nakagin Capsule Tower, Kisho Kurokawa’s vision of the urban planning of tomorrow.

The two interconnected towers consisted of 144 prefabricated live/work capsules. Barely 10 square meters in size, these tiny homes appeared back in 1972. That was seven years before the same designer created the first capsule hotel in Osaka, which pioneered a worldwide trend in the hospitality industry.

In the ’70s, the mega-structure of Nakagin Capsule Tower in the posh Ginza district of Tokyo was presented as a vision of the house in the future. The tiny house movement was in its diapers back then, and the minimalist lifestyle had yet to spread any roots.

In 2017, I could only see the building from the outside. To check how the Japanese have shrunk their lives into capsules smaller than some bathrooms, I traveled to Vitra Design Museum in Germany, which staged the exhibition under the title “Home Stories”.

Covering a century of architecture, this prominent design museum presented 20 visionary interiors, an insight into the future ideas of the past. Or is it – past ideas of the future?

As worldwide lockdowns stopped us from traveling to faraway places, could traveling through time be an alternative? Can these visions of the house in the future help us reinvent our lives, the process we started during the pandemic?

Vitra Design Museum history

Vitra Design Museum is a part of the Vitra Campus, a production site for Vitra furniture manufacturers, but also an architecture park with a multitude of buildings by renowned world architects.

This unique complex is located in Weil am Rhein, the most southwesterly town of Germany, just at the border with Switzerland and France.

Technically a suburb of Basel, the Swiss art capital, Weil am Rhein has been competing for cultural pride with its Vitra Design Museum since 1989.

After a devastating fire hit Vitra’s production facilities in 1981, the Swiss-owned furniture company that has been in existence since 1957 decided to turn over a new leaf.

Rolf Fehlbaum, the eldest son of Willi and Erika Fehlbaum, the founders of Vitra, took over the management of the company and established Vitra Design Museum. He imagined it as a place for displaying their growing collection of chairs and other furniture, but also for presenting internationally acclaimed exhibitions of design and architecture.

In 1989, the Vitra Design Museum, the first European building of the American architect Frank O. Gehry, was only a start. In the following decades, numerous works by famous world architects would transform Vitra Campus into a place that celebrates an architectural adventure.

Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, Álvaro Siza, Jean Prouvé, Herzog & de Meuron and SANAA are the names whose signature you will manage to find in this impressive park.

From a company that built its business on cult items such as Eames Lounge Chairs by Charles and Ray Eames, and Panton Chairs by Verner Panton, Vitra became a synonym for an iconic collection of contemporary architecture.

As for the Vitra Design Museum, it tried to broaden global horizons, first under the director Alexander von Vegesack (until 2010), then co-directors Mateo Kries and Marc Zehntner (2011-2020). Today, Mateo Kries directs the institution on his own.

When in Weil am Rhein, make sure to visit the museums in Basel, too! Some of the best art museums in Switzerland are just several tram stops away!

From Zaha Hadid Fire Station to VitraHaus furniture story

Before exploring the visionary interiors of Vitra Design Museum’s “Home Stories”, it’s impossible to oversee the fantastic exteriors of Vitra Campus.

Vitra Fire Station by Zaha Hadid at the southern entrance to the complex is the first one to catch one’s attention. It was obvious why Vitra owners wanted to have their own fire brigade after the 1981 disaster. But today, this sculptural structure from 1993, the first-ever building of the famous Iraqi architect, mainly serves as an event venue.

Right next to Zaha Hadid’s gray Fire Station, a fiery red Vitra Schaudepot from 2016 is a vivid contrast. Behind the brick walls, work of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the windowless building hides one of the most important furniture design collections in the world. It consists of more than 8000 objects!

The Álvaro Siza Promenade then circles around the Factory Building the Portuguese designed in 1994, passing by Vitra Slide Tower added in 2014. The 31-meter high observation tower, created by German artist Carsten Höller, includes a spiraling tube slide, a giant clock, and a viewing platform.

The path follows through the park sprinkled with smaller creations such as Thomas Schütte’s Blockhaus, Renzo Piano’s Diogene, or Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec’s Ring. However, VitraHaus clearly overshadows them all.

Designed by Basel-based architects Herzog & de Meuron in 2010, Vitra House houses Vitra Home Collection, the store where you can try and buy your choice of furniture and accessories. The idea of stacking house volumes on each other reminded me of that Kurokawa’s Tokyo tower concept which inspired this article journey. VitraHaus was confirming that some ideas of space usage definitely survive the test of time.

Frank Gehry’s Vitra Museum – a curled up phoenix

Unless you continue further towards the Balancing Tools sculpture erected here in 1984 by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, and the Conference Pavilion, Tadao Ando’s first work outside of Japan (1993), your walk will finally bring you to Vitra Design Museum (1989) and Vitra Design Museum Gallery (2003), both signed by Frank Gehry.

Vitra Design Museum, as the first public building on the campus, was a turning point in the development of the project. They built it with the assumption that opening the doors to a general audience will popularize design and architecture. Today, the campus magnetically attracts more than 300 thousand visitors every year.

What started with a lightning bolt that swallowed Vitra Campus in the blaze in one sad night of 1981, became an opportunity for remodeling a new world out of ashes

In front of the building, a human snake. Visitors obediently wait for their turn to enter Vitra Design Museum. Slowed down by the epidemiological measures, cultural experience has become a privilege worth the patience.

Socially distanced guests winding at the entrance almost complement the swirling of the white curved forms Gehry introduced in his premier European work.

What started with a lightning bolt that swallowed the campus in a blaze in one sad night of 1981, became an opportunity for remodeling a new world out of ashes. The fluid architectural work of the American Deconstructivist reminds me of a nested phoenix that speaks volumes with volumes.

Alison and Peter Smithson – House of the Future

“Our homes are an expression of the way we live, they shape our everyday routines and fundamentally affect our well-being.” Vitra Design Museum curators say this at the beginning of “Home Stories”, the exhibition that traces the evolution of the contemporary private interior.

Between the omnipresent Ikea seducing us with catalogs of “democratic design” since 1951 and the totemic Carlton room divider/bookcase by Ettore Sottsass from the Monte Carlo apartment of late Karl Lagerfeld in 1983, something in between captivated my attention.

The English architects Alison and Peter Smithson proposed their House of the Future in 1956. The project was their contribution to the theoretical debate about how the conventional suburban home would look like 25 years later, in the distant future of 1981.

In post-war Great Britain, at Daily Mail’s Ideal Home Exhibition in London, these New Brutalists proposed a house designed around a courtyard garden.

Their House of the Future did not need windows as it opened up to the natural lighting from above. Windowless houses would enable placing them side-by-side, which would probably make the management of urban space more economical. But it is not clear how the architects imagined the coexistence of such large open spaces with English weather.

This futuristic idea of Alison and Peter Smithson proposed a hybrid between a Stone Age cave and a spaceship. The curved walls were defining the living quarters of a young, childless couple. In tune with then widespread passion for new technologies and simplification of housework through automation, they basked in innovation.

The House of the Future came with an electrostatic dust collector at the entrance, a self-cleaning bath, an after-shower body air drier, and a sophisticated electro-acoustic communication system inside and outside the house. Calls were broadcast over loudspeakers instead of phones, and there was even a telephone message recorder.

Frankfurt kitchen as women’s laboratory

The importance of the functionality of interior design was apparent even after an earlier crisis, World War I. In the 1920s, designers sought an open and flowing living space. They saw decoration and ornaments not just as esthetic faux-pas, but also adverse for practical and hygienic reasons.

New Frankfurt (Neues Frankfurt) was one of the largest answers to the housing crisis in Europe in that period. The city commissioned architect and urban planner Ernst May to head this housing project on the green periphery of Frankfurt in 1926. It resulted in 10 thousand apartments that aimed to eliminate the housing shortage.

To nullify the class boundaries, as well as to secure the lower costs to the project, May & co. introduced the serial production that was typified.

For standardization of the kitchen, Austria’s first professional female architect was engaged. Margarete Lihotzky came up with a modular system that was a compact cooking workstation, measuring just 1.9 x 3.4 meters.

The famous Frankfurt Kitchen was the result of industrially approved optimization processes. Time-motion scientific studies of food preparation secured the efficiency of the kitchen layout. The reduction of the floor space was advertised purely as an ergonomic benefit for women. Nobody was mentioning the economic reasons of mass-production behind this choice.

“A kitchen is nothing but a laboratory”, Margarete claimed, “and it would be much better to work in if it was regarded as such and if it were somewhat furnished in this way. It would have to look a bit like a pharmacy, where every little bottle and every trifle has its designated shelf, with precise inscription, possibly even everything made to measure the same dimensions.”

Science also claimed that blue and green repel flies, so surfaces in the world’s first fitted kitchen were painted in these colors.

Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen Debate

The kitchen, that focal point of our comfort-inducing lockdown hobbies, was in the center of heated discussions in the Cold War era too.

American vice-president Richard Nixon met the Soviet first secretary Nikita Khrushchev at the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959. The verbal rivalry between “the lawyer of capitalism” and “the lawyer of communism” at the summer showcase of American industry entered history as the Kitchen Debate.

Nixon tried to demonstrate the higher standard of living in the USA by boasting with the newest labor-saving appliances in the prefabricated model house. He claimed that anyone in America could afford such a house.

Khrushchev responded that those were built to last only 20 years so that capitalist builders could sell people new homes. On the other hand, he insisted that USSR was building houses that last three generations.

The encounter of the two leaders among the refrigerators and electric stoves had been recorded in color TV, another example of American superiority.

“I want to show you this kitchen. It is like those of our houses in California”, said Nixon while pointing to a dishwasher.

“We have such things”, quickly discarded the bragging Khrushchev.

“This is our newest model”, Nixon persisted. “This is the kind which is built in thousands of units for direct installations in the houses. In America, we like to make life easier for women…”

“Your capitalistic attitude towards women does not occur under Communism”, Khrushchev cut him off.

The Soviet leader mocked American gadgets. It is easier to squeeze the juice out of a lemon by hand than using the lemon juicer, he claimed. “Don’t you have a machine that puts food into the mouth and pushes it down?”, ridiculed Khrushchev.

American products of the future sounded interesting, but the communist was asking: were they really needed in life?

Homo movens in stacked tiny homes

Traveling through bits and pieces of modern interiors’ birth certificates brought me to Kisho Kurokawa’s famous capsules from 1972.

His Nakagin Capsule Tower came about after a group of young Japanese architects and designers presented their Metabolism manifesto at the 1960 World Design Conference in Tokyo.

Kurokawa and other Metabolists were proposing a new form of urban planning and architecture. They imagined individual homes as transient elements of the urban infrastructure, just like leaves are for a tree.

The capsule was imagined as a dwelling for homo movens, an urban nomad who works until late or doesn’t have family ties. The 1970s predecessor of a digital nomad doesn’t have many belongings and thus can fit into one of the dozens of tiny capsules clipped together.

The futuristic living pods were tested in real life. Five decades ago, the 13 floors of Nakagin Capsule Towers were erected in just 30 days!

At Vitra Design Museum, I managed to take a peek into a cardboard model of these capsules, made by Charlap Hyman & Herrero in 2020. Indeed, they seemed to be compact flats that could fit a double bed, a small bathroom, and a wall of appliances and cabinets in 10 square meters.

The capsule is a cyborg architecture in metapolis, aimed towards a pluralistic society, imagined the manifesto of Metabolists.

The mass-produced unit that could be individualized was indeed at the forefront of the movement that will see living and working space as temporary surroundings in the larger image of what life is.

This vision of minimalism as a founding ground for dynamic cities of the future was quite advanced and innovative. Plus, these charming recyclable cubes had windows, unlike Smithson’s House of the Future.

Celebrities as cavemen in Cecil Beaton’s house

Then there is, of course, something radically different – opulence.

An ambitious British photographer and designer Cecil Beaton leased a Georgian manor house in his late 20s.

From 1930 to 1945, Ashcombe House in Wiltshire was not only the living space for his theatrical personality but also a site of lavish social gatherings. Greta Garbo, Salvador Dali and Queen Elizabeth are just drops of crème de la crème that were visiting Beaton’s fanciful universe.

The house had eye-catching furniture that was invoking Rococo and Baroque, but it also playfully celebrated the absurd, with candle holders in the form of human arms or bass drums he repurposed as side tables.

Vitra Design Museum exhibited the reproduction of his golden Circus Bed embellished with unicorns. Heading to sleep in such an unusual piece of furniture must have resembled jumping on a fairground ride.

Unlike Kurokawa’s capsule houses, Beaton did not see the home as a place to come for a short sleepover after a long day of work. Ashcombe House was a tool of an elevated esthetical and social experience.

Besides signing the visitors’ book, Beaton’s guests would also leave the marks of their hands on the bathroom wallpaper. Like ancient cavemen, these famous people were reaffirming their participation in a unique experience, almost saying “I was here”.

Following up on this tradition, Vitra invited its guests to leave their handprints on the museum wall, confidently exhibiting the idea that the contribution of passers-by cannot jeopardize, but instead enrich the relevance of an institution.

Visions of the house in the future – Conclusion

Since the Stone Age, our homes were caves where we were finding security. The home design had to serve its basic function: keeping us warm, protecting us from the outside enemy, and so on.

In 2020, #stayhome became a hashtag of our modern existence. Instead of bears trying to eat us, an invisible virus made us retreat in between our four walls. Gathering around the kitchen stove like prehistoric people around the fire, we were finding comfort in togetherness, and just trying to survive like we always had.

Our living quarters reflect not just esthetical choices, but also social, cultural, and existential aspects of our identity

In the world of closed cinemas, movies about dystopian societies triumphed on streaming services. As always, we played with predicting the future and consoled ourselves that it can always get worse.

With no social situations where one could expose the status through luxury objects, clothes, or travel experiences, our pajamas-clad everyday life at home has given us the privilege to think about the necessities of good living.

How can we design our lives and our homes in a way where they can serve their purpose in the future too? Between clutter and minimalism, between square footage and meaningful content, can we find that satisfying balance?

Vitra Design Museum brought questions we had about home stories in the past century. Some of these interiors definitely tackle today’s wonderings about the visions of the house in the future too. It’s a relevant reminder that our living quarters reflect not just esthetical choices, but also social, cultural, and existential aspects of our identity.

In 1924, the pioneer of modern architecture Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said: “Architecture is the will of the epoch translated into space. Lively, changing, new.” A century later, this evergreen definition can support the designing of our next home stories too.

Vitra Design Museum Facts

Vitra Design Museum address

Charles-Eames-Str. 2, Weil am Rhein, Germany

How to get to Vitra Design Museum?

Vitra Design Museum’s location is easily reachable from Basel. Tram line 8 terminates in Weil am Rhein. From there, you can reach Vitra Campus by heading north along Müllheimer Strasse. The walk will take you about 15 minutes.

From Basel Badischer Bahnhof train station, you can also take bus no. 55 to bus stop Vitra, or the Deutsche Bahn train to Weil am Rhein.

Vitra Design Museum opening hours

Vitra Campus is open from Monday till Sunday, from 10 am till 6 pm. However, at the moment of publishing this article, Vitra Campus is closed for visitors due to the current situation with COVID-19. Before visiting, always consult the Vitra Design Museum website first.

The good news is that you can visit Vitra Design Museum virtually too. #VDMHomeStories is the museum’s digital initiative that provides a visual experience of the collection.

Selected objects with background information can be found in the Online Collection.

You can find exhibition films and talks on Vitra Design Museum Youtube.

Director Mateo Kries and museum curators make live conversations with various guests on Vitra Design Museum Instagram.

Vitra Design Museum Facebook account is another place to join the discussion about the museum and its collections.

If you are looking for cool souvenirs and gifts, consider visiting Vitra Design Museum online shop.

Vitra Design Museum entrance fee

Vitra Design Museum ticket costs 11 Euros, while Vitra Schaudepot costs 8. The combined visit to both will be 17 Euros.

Reduced prices are available for underage persons, students, seniors, disabled persons, groups of more than 10 people. Children under 12 years of age can visit the Vitra Design Museum free of charge.

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The post Visions of the House in the Future: Home Stories at Vitra Design Museum appeared first on Pipeaway.

This city has always been at the crossroads of civilizations and a variety of cultural influences. It was a center of trade and science, and Basel citizens quickly recognized the value of knowledge and art. Their private collections became the cornerstone of Switzerland‘s most vivid museum scene.

When you look at the city’s touristic offer, museums are actually the best of Basel, the unmissable institutions when visiting Switzerland’s cultural capital.

The best museums in Basel turn out to also be the best museums in Switzerland! Welcome to the alive and kicking cultural capital on the meeting point of three countries!

Why is Basel so boring?

I stumbled upon this query while researching the keywords for this article. The person(s) who asked search engines to answer the philosophical question ‘Why is Basel so boring?’, clearly didn’t have an interest in Basel’s numerous cultural institutions.

I gave Basel museums a chance and ended up staying in this town on the border of Switzerland, Germany, and France for a whole month!

As the attention span of Centennials has shortened to about 8 seconds, Basel museums are in danger of becoming obsolete

As the attention span of Centennials (or Generation Z) has shortened to about 8 seconds, museums, seen as large collections of various types of knowledge, are in danger of becoming obsolete.

The way museums market themselves and invest in enriching the visitors’ experience will determine their future, which will be challenging for everyone in the cultural sector.

Basel is definitely not boring! The biggest culprits for this fact are Basel museums, the strong players in the tourist market of Switzerland and neighboring countries. They are competing for visitors’ attention, and some stole mine!

While ranking cultural institutions could rely on many sets of criteria, it will always depend on the taste of the selector, too. So I need you to trust me: this blog post presents the best museums in Basel, Switzerland!

Speaking of taste, if you head to Eastern Europe, make sure to visit Romanian Kitsch Museum, where low taste is celebrated as an art form!

How many museums are there in Basel?

There are between 30 and 40 museums in Basel. The correct number largely depends on how one defines a museum, as well as – Basel.

While Basel’s Botanical Garden, one of the oldest in the world, and Basel Zoo, or popular Zolli, the city’s most visited attraction, are definitely worthy collections with significant exhibits on display, they are not included here. However, my list of the best museums in Basel does include the tiny Hoosesagg Museum, which you will probably not find in the typical museum lists of Basel, probably as it’s not considered a place of serious expertise.

On the other side, Basel’s geographical position on the soft border of three countries (the contact point is called Dreiländereck) makes it hard to draw the line too. It would be a shame to visit Basel and not discover a museum just because it is located in the next canton or country. Technically, even Basel’s EuroAirport, the only bi-national airport in the world, is located – in France!

The majority of top-picked Basel museums are located in the center, especially Old Town. But some, such as the House of Electronic Arts, geographically belong to the canton of Basel-Landschaft. Still, it is the same bus/tram network that will bring you there. You really will not feel as if you’ve left Basel-Stadt!

If Basel’s public transport can bring you to a certain museum, I thought it would be ignorant to exclude the museum that is nominally on the other side of the border. That’s the case for the Vitra Design Museum, for instance. It is located in Weil am Rhein, on German territory, but the Swiss tram will bring you there. You don’t have to be stressed about the border crossing. As it’s the Schengen Zone, no passports will be checked.

When you cross to Asia, you will cross more than geographical boundaries! Jeju Loveland is an open-air museum of sex!

Basel museum history

Due to its geographical position, Basel was always a center of trade and finance. The town is also home to Switzerland’s oldest university. The University of Basel dates back to 1460, and it has engaged people such as Erasmus, Paracelsus, Nietzsche, and Jung as teachers.

The passion for knowledge and the passion for commerce combined into a very peculiar mania of collecting in Basel. People were just obsessed with collecting objects of art, rare finds from nature, scientific instruments, and exotic curiosities.

Remigius Faesch and Basilius Amerbach had exceptional collections! The first one opened his private “museum” in 1653, while the city of Basel purchased the Amerbach’s Cabinet in 1661. They made it accessible to everyone, thus creating the world’s first museum open to the public! Today, Kunstmuseum, as an inheritor, is the largest museum of art in Switzerland.

There were more outstanding collections pieced together by private individuals in Basel between the 16^th and 18^th centuries. Known as Wunderkammer, the cabinets of curiosities reflected the universal interest in art, nature, and science in Early Modern Europe. These precious collections made their way to Basel’s public museums.

Another date worth noting in Basel museum history’s timeline is in the 20^th century. In 1980, Museum für Gegenwartskunst opened as the first European public museum dedicated to contemporary art, and one of the first ones in the world! Today, Gegenwart is one of the three venues of the Kunstmuseum.

Nowadays, there is approximately one museum per square kilometer in Basel! With a population of barely 200 thousand citizens, 40 museums in the smallest Swiss canton are quite an impressive cultural wealth. Basel might be a pocket-sized metropolis, but it is the cultural capital of Switzerland!

Kaunas in Lithuania, the European Capital of Culture 2022, has a peculiar museum - the Devil's Museum!

How to see the best museums in Basel for less?

Basel’s quality of life comes at a price. If you would like to see all the museums in Basel, prepare to have deep pockets!

The average admission ticket in Basel museums costs about 11,50 Swiss Francs (10,70 Euros), with Fondation Beyeler topping the chart (25 CHF or 23 EUR).

Only a small portion of museums in Basel are free of charge.

The good news is that many have free admission on Sunday, or for instance last working hour of the day.

There are several more solutions for a cheaper and carefree museum experience in Basel!

1. Basel Card

Upon check-in at your Basel hotel (find your best Basel hotel deal on this link!), the receptionist should hand you this free card. Besides providing benefits such as complimentary public transport (and that’s already a saving of a couple of Francs per ride), the Basel Card secures a 50 % discount on museum admission.

2. Swiss Museum Pass

This card offers free or reduced admission to more than 500 museums across Switzerland! The Swiss Museum Pass for adults costs 166 CHF (155 Euros) and is valid for one year. There are also combo tickets for families.

3. Museums-PASS-Musées

This card grants you access to over 335 museums, castles, and gardens in Switzerland, France, and Germany. The annual Museums-PASS-Musées costs 143 CHF (112 Euros) and is valid for one adult and up to five children.

4. Museumnacht Basel

Like many European cities, Basel also celebrates the Long Night of the Museums once a year. On that day, Basel museums operate with long working hours, and free public transport connects them all. A single ticket for Museumnacht Basel costs 24 CHF (23 Euros) and grants you access to around 200 events in 38 museums participating. Entrance for those younger than 26 is free, and Museums-PASS-Musées secures a discounted price. In 2021, the Night of the Museums in Basel is on May 7^th.

Without further ado, let’s dive into this city of art and pick the best museums in Basel, Switzerland!

The best museums in Basel – Top 15

1. Basel Historical Museum – Historisches Museum Basel – Barfüsserkirche

I struggled with history in my school years. Putting the Basel Historical Museum at the top of the list of the best museums in Basel says a lot about my impressions! I’ve spent four hours on my first visit here, and had to return for an additional three! Thirst for history becomes almost addictive in this museum’s display!

The main part of the collection is placed in Barfüsserkirche, a Gothic church used by barefoot Mendicant monks since the 14^th century. Life in Basel was dominated by religion until the 19^th century. So, how did a town where attendance at mass was mandatory for everyone transform a church first into a dairy market, and then into a museum in 1894? Or how did they get rid of cemeteries to make public parks, losing the city’s famous mural, Dance of Death, in one of these transformations?

The Basel Historical Museum presents Basel from prehistoric times to the present. One of the most important museums of cultural history on the Upper Rhine gives insight into the sacral art and reliquaries of Basel Cathedral Treasury, it lets you look for unicorns on beautiful medieval tapestries, provokes thought with rich archeology findings, and impresses with a coin collection and wonderful cabinets of curiosities.

For those who do not have hours for delving, there is an informative, brief history of Basel in 50 objects!

Special exhibitions such as the one about the Nazi era in Basel remind us why it is important to study history.

By providing visitors with touchscreen pens (that enable you to test your knowledge in a quiz or literally highlight the museum objects), accompanying medieval art with amusing animated videos, or describing the exhibits in a freely available online guide, Basel Historical Museum secures an interactive experience for a modern visitor.

Basel Historical Museum – Barfüsserkirche – Barfüsserplatz 7.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10-17 h.
Admission ticket: 15/8 CHF. Free admission for visitors under the age of 13, and also on the first Sunday of the month, as well as during the last working hour every day except Sundays and holidays.

Basel Historical Museum operates in two additional locations. Haus zum Kirschgarten in Elisabethenstrasse 27 provides an insight into the living environment of the wealthy middle classes of the 18th-century Basel. In Im Lohnhof 9, the cells of the former prison host Musikmuseum, the largest Swiss collection of musical instruments.

2. Basel Pharmacy Museum – Pharmazienmuseum der Universität Basel

The history of syphilis is a history of international relations. The Italians called it the French disease, the French called it the Neapolitan disease. Russians said it was the Polish disease, and the Poles claimed it was the German disease. Turks called it – the Christian disease! Blame was transferred as easily as syphilis! Some thought it was caused by astrological factors. Others said it was God’s punishment. And some cursed Columbus’s return from America. Just like a disease, the solution was believed to come from the New World, too. Tobacco triumphed as a miraculous cure for many diseases, from cough to cancer! Blowing the smoke directly into the patient’s rectum (tobacco enema) was considered especially effective!

This is just a snippet of the wealth of knowledge living in the Pharmacy Museum of Basel University. The museum started as a private collection of the pharmacist Josef Anton Häfliger, who donated ancient apothecaries’ vessels, laboratory equipment, medications, and other materials in 1925. Today, this is one of the largest and most significant collections on the history of pharmacy.

From alchemy and homeopathy to religious medicine, this stunning display reveals the history of our battle with diseases. In the search for a panacea, it seems we have tried it all! From earthworms and scorpions to feces and stamps of Madonna, anything could have become a remedy. One method against incurable illnesses was even beating the hell out of a patient!

Incomparable with the gigantic towers of the Hoffman-La Roche pharmaceutical company, the Basel Pharmacy Museum is housed on two floors of the Zum vorderen Sessel building in the Old Town. The place where Erasmus and Paracelsus were frequent guests is a perfect starting point for exploring Basel’s most famous industry. Use the audio guide!

Basel Pharmacy Museum – Totengässlein 3.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10-17 h.
Admission ticket: 8/5 CHF.

The Basel Pharmacy Museum ticket is also valid for the Anatomical Museum of the University of Basel in Pestalozzistrasse 20, where you can see a fair amount of human steaks. As long as you have a stomach for it!

3. Museum of Cultures Basel – Museum der Kulturen Basel

Under an extravagant folded honeycomb roof signed by the local architects Herzog & de Meuron (famous for the Tate Modern in London and the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing), the renovated building in the medieval center of Basel houses the Museum of Cultures.

The Neoclassical building, dating back to 1849, is the first building in German-speaking Switzerland purposely built as a museum. When local businessman Lukas Vischer donated valuable objects from Mexico, Basel got one of the first European ethnological collections open to the public. The content expanded in the following decades with objects from Europe, Africa, America, Oceania, and Asia. Today, Museum der Kulturen is one of the Old Continent’s most eminent ethnographic museums!

With more than 300.000 ethnographic artifacts and 50.000 photographs in possession, curators have a hard job of presenting them coherently to the public. Luckily, they are doing a great job in both informing and educating us about the diversity of the world’s cultures.

From the Neolithic engravings of a white rhino to the controversial shrunken head from Ecuador, from tiny souvenirs to gigantic masks, this museum constantly makes you rethink humanity’s journey.

While the collection is truly impressive, exhibition texts on objects are available online only in .pdf form. That is certainly not the best technical solution for mobile phone browsing. If they want a better user experience for visitors connecting the dots in this enormous ethnographic wealth, I would suggest improvement in this area.

Museum of Cultures Basel – Münsterplatz 20.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10-17 h. Every first Wednesday of the month until 20 h.
Admission ticket: 16/5 CHF. Free admission for visitors under the age of 13, and also on the first Sunday of the month, as well as during the last working hour every day.

Museum of Cultures ticket entitles you to visit the Basel Carnival - Fasnacht exhibition in the next building too. This permanent display gives an overview of Basel’s favorite feast protected by UNESCO!

4. Museum of Natural History – Naturhistorisches Museum Basel

The Museum of Natural History in Basel is another successor of the Amerbach Cabinet in 1661. After more than three centuries of collecting the objects from the fields of zoology, entomology, mineralogy, anthropology, osteology, and paleontology, it truly deserves its subtitle – the Archives of Life.

Naturhistorisches Museum is a fantastic idea for a family day! This is the place where you can explain to your kids some of the crucial ideas of life, from the origin of the world to the development of mammals.

There are even special events that allow you to spend the night at the museum! Roam its rooms with a flashlight, and come face-to-face with dinosaurs, a dodo bird, and other extinct animals! Then unroll your sleeping bag under a gigantic squid, for some great childhood memories!

There are nearly 12 million objects here, such as a stuffed giraffe or a gigantic mammoth, but also living animals such as honey bees and leafcutter ants. Taking a peek inside the hives and busy ant colony could be quite a meditative experience!

Besides learning exciting facts about the planet’s fauna, the Museum also gives an opportunity to understand the formation of Earth, its continents, and oceans. From the rocks of the Jurassic world to the display of butterflies, it’s an exciting journey through a dynamic and fragile planet.

Life on Earth has evolved over the last 3,8 billion years. While some species disappeared as a part of natural processes, many went extinct because of us. Stuffed animals are not just a memory of the world that will never come back; they are also a constant reminder of our responsibility for maintaining the stability of the natural world. Children can enter many Basel museums for free, but this could be their most educational out-of-school day!

Museum of Natural History – Augustinergasse 2.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10-17 h.
Admission ticket: 7/5 CHF. Free admission for visitors under the age of 13, and also on the first Sunday of the month, as well as during the last working hour every day.

5. House of Electronic Arts – Haus der elektronischen Künste Basel – HeK

Formerly farmland of Christoph Merian, the 19^th-century businessman and one of Basel’s greatest patrons, then an industrial zone with warehouses and a customs depot, the Dreispitz site has become a cultural hub on the outskirts of Basel. Technically in the municipality of Münchenstein, this creative triangle today houses a variety of cultural institutions.

The House of Electronic Arts Basel (HeK) is one of the pioneers of this art campus on the edge of the town. Since 2014, it has been celebrating electronic art and digital culture.

Covering a dynamic creative field of new media and technologies, Haus der elektronischen Künste changes its exhibitions every season. Add festivals, concerts, performances, and education programs, and you’ll get a vibrant hot spot for the youth scene.

I visited this interdisciplinary venue during the international group exhibition entitled “Real Feelings”. There were twenty contemporary artworks exploring the relationship between technology and emotions. In a world where AI machines were capable of interpreting human emotions and in the age when young children needed additional training to do the same, we were reminded of a variety of questions on surveillance, manipulation, and control. The exhibition offered an immersive experience that made one wonder and reflect. In times when all the questions are available with a click of a mouse, this represents a true value.

If you are into provoking and challenging dilemmas of the future of humankind, the House of Electronic Arts could become your favorite museum in Basel!

House of Electronic Arts – Freilager-Platz 9, Münchenstein.
Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 12-18 h.
Admission ticket: 9/6 CHF. Free admission for visitors under the age of 17, and also on the first Sunday of the month, as well as during the first working hour Wednesday-Friday.

If you’re professionally interested in innovative art, especially video art, the nearby Laurenz Stiftung Schaulager is a peculiar institution, a new kind of museum you can visit only by appointment. It’s also worth seeing it from the outside if you are already in the neighborhood.

6. Vitra Design Museum

Just a few minutes away from the Swiss border, reachable by tram no. 8 from Basel’s Claraplatz, Vitra Campus is a must-visit for anyone in love with contemporary architecture. Vitra, the pricier Swiss response to Ikea, lost its production halls in a 1981 fire. The rebuilding was seen as an opportunity, and they invited the world’s most visionary architects to design the structures for the campus. Today, this Mecca for architecture lovers includes works by Nicholas Grimshaw, Tadao Ando, Álvaro Siza, as well as the very first major work of Zaha Hadid – Vitra Fire Station.

While strolling through this German park is already a fulfilling experience, one of its buildings gives a constant boost for our reflections on design – Vitra Design Museum. Established in 1989, the world’s leading design and architecture institution hosts two major temporary exhibitions every year.

My visit coincided with the “Home Stories” program that traced the evolution of the contemporary private interior. On the curving sculptural floors of the building designed by Frank Owen Gehry, twenty iconic interiors presented the vision of our homes from the 1920s till today.

From the extravagant Circus Bed of Cecil Beaton in 1934 England to Kisho Kurokawa’s Capsule Tower that caters to homo movens/urban solo nomad in Tokyo of the 1970s, visions of the homes of the future were radically different.

This century-long journey has been presented excitingly, and that’s exactly what you expect from Vitra Design Museum, the owner of one of the largest collections of modern furniture in the world!

Vitra Design Museum – Charles-Eames-Strasse 2, Weil am Rhein.
Opening hours: every day, 12-17 h.
Admission ticket: 11/9 EUR. Free admission for visitors under the age of 13.

Vitra Design Museum’s collection of 20.000 objects is kept in Vitra Schaudepot, the building designed by Herzog & de Meuron, and for additional 6 Euros, you can visit this display as well. 

7. Basel Paper Mill – Swiss Museum for Paper, Writing and Printing – Basler Papiermühle

There is a perfectly simple explanation of why Erasmus and scholars alike flocked to Basel since the Middle Ages. Besides being the place of the first university in Switzerland, Basel also had a prominent printing trade. The ability to reproduce written work of good quality and in large quantities drew many intellectuals to the town and made it the center of humanism.

Within the walls of a medieval mill in St. Alban district, the Swiss Museum for Paper, Writing and Printing demystifies the process from handmade paper to finished book.

Basel Paper Mill does not present just the history of paper, scripture, and print. It also offers an opportunity for hands-on experience in its production workshops.

Powered by the water of the St. Alban-Teich canal, this five-century-old mill keeps up with historic tradition. Paper is made of old rags! The museum stamping mill grinds them first, and then they process them further in the manufactory.

There is something incredibly nostalgic about witnessing this authentic paper production. In the old days, the whole valley was echoing with the noise generated by stamping mills.

Spread over four floors, there is a lot of knowledge and historic rarities to soak in Basel Paper Museum. Everything from writing via printing to bookbinding is covered in this fun visit.

Whether you start reflecting on something as mundane as a roll of toilet paper or you end up getting amazed by the beauty of calligraphy, you will never look at the paper with the same eyes again!

Basel Paper Mill – St. Alban-Tal 37.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, Sunday, 11-17 h; Saturday 13-17 h.
Admission ticket: 15/13/9 CHF. Free admission for visitors under the age of 6.

8. Cartoonmuseum Basel

Cartoonmuseum Basel, previously known as Caricature & Cartoon Museum, closes its doors during the Carnival dates. But what Basel Fasnacht celebrates through public performance, this museum cherishes in the form of narrative drawings!

Exclusively dedicated to satirical art (from caricatures and comics to graphic novels and cartoons), Cartoonmuseum brings exhibitions that present classical and contemporary artists, as well as the political and social environment they create within.

Besides telling stories through exhibitions, it also gives them a hardcover life. One of the most recent examples is “Idulfania”, published by Christoph Merian Verlag, the independent publisher affiliated with Christoph Merian Foundation that supports Cartoonmuseum as well.

Idulfania is a nightmarish fairytale land from the mind of Brecht Evens, the young Belgian artist whose illustrations in distinctive watercolor technique depict the devastating effects of power in a surreal universe.

“Night Animals”, the retrospective exhibition of this unconventional artist that connects bright colors with macabre, is just one of the ways in which Cartoonmuseum raises awareness for emerging artists, as well as for the social and political commentary of the narrative drawing art.

Besides presenting single artists, the museum also curates thematic exhibitions.

The growing collection of more than 10.000 original drawings creates a respectable legacy; you should definitely pay a visit when in Basel.

Cartoonmuseum Basel – St. Alban-Vorstadt 28.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 11-17 h.
Admission ticket: 12/7 CHF. Free admission for visitors under the age of 11.

9. Fondation Beyeler

Basel’s most visited art museum is not even in Basel! Located in the municipality of Riehen, reachable by tram no. 6 from Messeplatz, Fondation Beyeler, which promises encounters of art with nature, seems to be at the perfect spot!

Surrounded by cornfields and vineyards, with cows and sheep as first neighbors, stands the impressive building designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano (the author of Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and The Shard in London). The smartly designed glass roof lets the natural light through, just enough to make it energy-saving, but not in an amount that would endanger the precious art inside.

While you can appreciate Monet’s famous water lilies on the walls of the museum’s interior, a pond in front of the building hides some more. The real water lilies, but also the sonic ones! The artwork by Algerian Philippe Parreno consists of speakers on the bottom of the pond producing sound waves that ripple the water’s surface in the form of invisible water lilies. The idyllic English garden seems to be the most natural home for both modern and contemporary art!

The museum launched in 1997, from an iconic art collection of Basel art dealers Ernst and Hildy Beyeler. Opening it to the public quickly brought it to world fame, and today, the best Basel art museum is the most popular in the whole of Switzerland.

The collection contains about 400 masterpieces of Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Giacometti, Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois, Gerhard Richter, etc. Combine this with borrowed works, and you easily get a very prestigious art gallery!

Fondation Beyeler – Baselstrasse 101, Riehen.
Opening hours: every day 10-18 h, Wednesday until 20 h.
Admission ticket: 25/20/12 CHF. Free admission for visitors under the age of 26.

If you cannot afford Basel’s priciest museum, Berower Park is still a nice green zone for enjoying some free outdoor sculpture art or reading a book in the shadows of the old trees. If you’re into hiking, you can even go for a walk from Fondation Beyeler to Vitra Campus. The scenic path across the border is sprinkled with art by Tobias Rehberger. Try to find all 24 stops!

10. Kunstmuseum Basel

Usually listed as one of the top attractions in Basel (including the number 1 spot on Tripadvisor’s list of things to do), Kunstmuseum Basel is an art collection of impressive size and content.

But museums are more than just collections. Mainly for the inconsistent application of English descriptions (English is the second most-used language in Basel!), and lack of clarity of curatorial concept lines filling these grand hallways (which makes the navigation a confusing grabble in the darkness), this museum is in the undeserved 10^th place of this list.

If we put the visitors’ DIY game of chance on the side, there is still plenty of beauty to surrender to in Kunstmuseum Basel. The world’s first public art museum is capable of displaying 4.000 paintings, sculptures, installations, and videos, and 300.000 drawings and prints spanning over seven centuries!

The largest art collection in Switzerland was based on the famous Amerbach Cabinet, but since 1661, the artworks of Hans Holbein were joined by masterpieces of artists such as Arnold Böcklin, Marc Chagall, or Jasper Johns!

One of the most illustrative stories on the amount of love the people of Basel share with Kunstmuseum dates to 1967. When an art collector was forced to sell the two Picasso paintings on loan, Basel citizens came out on the streets, collected donations, carried out a referendum, and induced the city to buy the works for 8,4 million Swiss Francs! Pablo Picasso was touched by their action and donated an additional four works to the museum!

Today, in three different buildings (Hauptbau, Neubau, Gegenwart), Kunstmuseum Basel presents permanent and special exhibitions of old masters as well as contemporary artists, trying to defend its worldwide fame.

Do you want to see its masterpieces with new eyes? Check out these Kunstmuseum-Eurovision match-ups!

Kunstmuseum Basel – St. Alban-Graben 16.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10-18 h, Wednesday until 20 h.
Admission ticket: 16/8 CHF (all-in-one 26/18 CHF). Free admission for visitors under the age of 13, and also on the first Sunday of the month, as well as from Tuesday to Friday after 17 h.

If you want to see more contemporary art, besides Gegenwart, you can also consider visiting Kunsthalle Basel and Kunsthaus Baselland.

11. Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig

If you are intrigued by the art of the ancient civilizations, just across the street from the Kunstmuseum, there is the Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig!

The museum prepares exhibitions on history, religion, and everyday life of the ancient Mediterranean world from the 4^th millennium BC until the 7^th century AD.

The heart of the outstanding classical collection is Greek and Roman sculptures portraying writers, philosophers, rulers, and mythical figures.

In the Oriental Department, 220 artworks witness the exchanges between East and West, from Mesopotamia and Iran to Cyprus and Greece.

Sadly, during my visit, the Egyptian collection, as well as Antikenmuseum’s famous Greek vases collection, were temporarily closed due to renovation works both in and outside of the museum. More reasons for a return visit!

For the largest Egyptian collection in the world, now you can visit Giza, where the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum retells Egypt's story.

Antikenmuseum Basel – St. Alban-Graben 5.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 11-17h, Thursday and Friday until 22 h.
Admission ticket: 10/5 CHF. Free admission for visitors under the age of 13, and also on weekends, as well as on Thursday and Friday after 17 h.

Besides Antikenmuseum Basel, you can also visit their Skulpturhalle in Mittlere Strasse 17. The entrance to one of the largest collections of plaster casts of ancient sculptures, including those from the Parthenon in Athens, is free.

12. Toy Worlds Museum Basel – Spielzeug Welten Museum Basel

The four-story house around the corner of Barfüsserplatz in the center of the town was formerly known as the Dollhouse Museum Basel. And rightfully so, as even today, when the institution bears the name of the Toy Worlds Museum Basel, it seems it is primarily serving as a vitrine into the world of miniature model makers and dolls that are too precious to play with.

Hidden behind the glass of the showcases, your children can get a lesson on the history of dollhouses: some toys are just conceived to be looked at! Except for several buttons throughout the museum that will set the scenes in motion (such as a Formula One racetrack or a fairground with carousel rides), the display is less entertaining than some would hope. After initial impressions of admiration for miniature makers’ attention to detail, one could get toy-overdosed.

The stars of the Toy Worlds Museum are definitely teddy bears. With more than 2.500 cuddly toys on display, this is supposedly the largest collection of teddy bears in the world! There is even one presented as a gift by President Theodore Roosevelt himself, after whose hunting accident the famous type of toy was named.

On 1.000 square meters, Basel Toy Museum hosts 6.000 exhibits. Plenty of bears, dolls, and playshops to enjoy observing for hours!

But the Spielzeug Welten Museum also organizes temporary exhibitions. They might not have much to do with toys, but they are equally playful. The one on walking sticks hiding an array of secrets (from the picnic table and fishing equipment to barber’s essentials and Jewish circumcision kit), offered a unique view into a fascinating world of this male fashion accessory.

The Toy Worlds museum is free for children, but my feeling is that adults are the audience that can truly appreciate the efforts behind it.

One Swiss artist made a traveling project with vintage toy cars. Read our interview with Kim Leuenberger!

Toy Worlds Museum Basel – Steinenvorstadt 1.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10-18 h. In December, every day.
Admission ticket: 7/5 CHF. Free admission for visitors under the age of 17.

If your kids have a specific interest in vintage cars, take them to the oldtimer heaven Pantheon! If you think they would love fire brigade vehicles, the free Sunday-only Schweizerisches Feuerwehrmuseum could be the right fit. If they love ships, you could see some nice models at Verkehrsdrehscheibe Schweiz!

13. Jewish Museum of Switzerland – Jüdisches Museum der Schweiz

From the pointed hat in the Middle Ages to the passports marked with a letter “J” in the Nazi era, Jews had to be clearly identified. Often subject to special laws, the Jewish people had a history that was often telling less about them and more about our oppressive selves.

The Jewish Museum of Switzerland was the first one to open in German-speaking Europe after World War II. Since 1966, it has displayed an important collection of Judaica, narrating two millennia of history, from religion to daily life.

In just two rooms, the exhibits show how tradition changes under the influence of other cultures. From traditional Torah scrolls and ornaments to the dinosaur-shaped Hanukkah lamp, from ceremonial silver to “Jew Jitsu” caps for men, it is a constantly shifting environment of strict rules and an exceptional framework to break them.

Jüdisches Museum der Schweiz is a short introductory course into the world of Jewish culture, especially in the territory of today’s Switzerland.

Jewish Museum of Switzerland – Kornhausgasse 8.
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 13-16 h; Sunday, 11-17 h.
Admission ticket: 12/8/5 CHF.

The ticket for the Jewish Museum of Switzerland is also valid for the JMS Gallery in Petersgraben 31. Here you can see temporary exhibitions on thought-provoking topics, such as the secret system for supporting Jewish escape from nazi Germany with South American passports.

14. Museum Tinguely

If you passed by the Theaterplatz, you must’ve noticed the Carnival Fountain. This crazy little universe of spraying water was installed in 1977, and since then has become one of Basel’s landmarks. Its creator was Jean Tinguely, one of the most notable Swiss artists of the 20^th century.

If you adored the silliness of that fountain, you might be interested in Museum Tinguely as well. In Solitudepark by the Rhine, Mario Botta’s building houses the world’s largest collection of the late artist.

In his creative work, Tinguely was preoccupied with the machine. He wanted to know how they work and how they move.

Well, you might have the same questions here! I understand that a museum dedicated to kinetic art sculptures cannot have them operating all the time, as sooner or later, the machines would blow up in front of the eager visitors. But there was literally no schedule of when the artworks would come to life. You press a button as a visitor, and nothing happens. And nobody tells you when something COULD happen. The very imprecise answer is: Later.

Besides the time management of your visit, I was also concerned about the organization of space, as there was no logical path leading you from one room to the other. In your laissez-faire wandering around these artworks in motion (and the majority were actually static), you could even miss a whole floor!

Museum Tinguely wants to set your senses in motion and provide the pleasure of discovery, but sadly, some organization is missing in this “art coming to the viewer” concept.

Luckily, there are also temporary exhibitions on display, and Taro Izumi’s frozen moments of absurd filled the gaps between “please come later” Tinguely’s display.

Museum Tinguely – Paul Sacher-Anlage 2.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 11-18 h.
Admission ticket: 18/12 CHF. Free admission for visitors under the age of 17.

15. Pants Pocket Museum – Hoosesagg Museum

The last and certainly the least in this selection of the best museums in Basel is the Hoosesagg Museum or the Pants Pocket Museum. Each of its exhibits can fit into your pocket!

Basel’s smallest museum is located in the Old Town, in a pedestrian street with stairs. The six-century-old house, home of Basel’s first midwife, was always attracting tourists to take a peek. Instead of having lurking strangers at their window, the homeowners, Dagmar and Matthias Vergeat, decided to stop them at the door. In the window of 75×75 cm, they installed an exhibition of everyday objects. Soon, they got bored with the display and decided to change it regularly.

Since 1995, a small opening in the door has hosted dozens of mini-exhibitions on various topics. From beer bottle caps and perfume bottles to Paris and strawberries, only the imagination was the limit. As long as they could find a decent number of objects under a certain theme, they gave it a curatorial framework: Beatles, snow globes, Pokemon, cravats… You name it!

Literally: you name it! As long as you have at least 40 objects, each at the maximum size of your palm, you can propose an exhibition in Hoosesagg Museum! Expect a neatly sorted display that will put a smile on the faces of the passers-by for two months!

If you visit this tiny museum, make sure to ring the doorbell! Some of the exhibited memorabilia might start to come to life!

Hoosesaggmuseum – Imbergässlein 31.
Opening hours: 24/7.
Admission ticket: free.

The best museums in Basel – Conclusion

There are not many European cities of comparable size where you could find such a rich heritage as in Basel, the cultural capital of Switzerland.

It is not a surprise that Art Basel, the world’s largest art fair, started in the city whose citizens proudly collect works of art, pieces of science, and traces of nature for centuries!

Switzerland might be one of the world’s most expensive countries. But behind the price tag, there is wealth worth exploring

The Basel museum scene is an exciting well of knowledge and beauty, where the Renaissance spirit has never died out. Today’s museums inherited the collections and the spirit of yesterday and infused them with new life. The appreciation for unique witnesses of the development of our civilization has always been highly regarded in this corner of Switzerland.

From the tiny Hoosesagg Museum that will take 10 minutes of your time to the gigantic Basel Historical Museum that could immerse your thoughts for hours, from a classical heritage of the Kunstmuseum to the thought-provoking art of tomorrow in the House of Electronic Arts, from the millennia of nature in the Museum of Natural History to the centuries of science in the Pharmacy Museum, the top museums in Basel have an attention-grabbing, captivating nature.

Switzerland might be one of the world’s most expensive countries. But behind the price tag, there is wealth worth exploring. The best museums in Basel are worth every cent!

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Whether you’re up for laid-back vacations on the beach or active holidays that include hiking to the highest peak of the Cyclades, Naxos Island will provide things to do

As the largest island in the Cyclades archipelago, Naxos rarely feels overcrowded. It lets every visitor explore a corner of one’s own. Naxos attractions range from important historical sites to places of natural beauty.

Whether you’re up for laid-back vacations on the beach or active holidays that include hiking to the highest peak of the Cyclades, Naxos Island will provide things to do. Explore its mythology in the cave where Zeus was raised, learn about architecture in its ancient temples and newer churches, visit museums and art workshops, do sports in an amazing setting, or opt for restaurant hopping as an activity of choice!

The sightseeing options in Naxos could feel overwhelming for short stays. So choose the pace that suits you, and make the list of must-see places according to personal preferences!

The Greek island where Zeus, the king of gods, found refuge from the rage of his father, is a place where many of us could retreat to. Being the land of marble and myths, Naxos could construct some legendary holidays for a variety of travelers!

Rent a car, hop in, and start exploring the island of Naxos!

Top 17 things to do in Naxos, Greece

1. Find the best beach in Naxos

Naxos beaches are maybe the island’s most famous asset. With kilometers of sand stretching over its southwestern coast, most beach lovers end up exploring this area. It is not unusual they often end up on the top of the lists of things to do in Naxos.

Alyko beaches

For my taste, the prettiest beaches are located on the Alyko (or Aliko) peninsula. Just where the dirt roads replace the paved ones, this secluded corner of Naxos opens to the scenic wilderness. It is a protected natural area covered by the largest Greek cedar forest.

Kedros Beach (reserved for nudists) and Hawaii Beach (just next to it, with a 10-meter drop from the dunes to the sea level) look stunning. But they are also exposed to the northern winds and stronger waves. For better protection, visit the popular southern coves called Alyko Beach and Mikro Alyko Beach.

While special unspoiled beauty emanates from these white soft sand beaches and their azure waters, there is not much infrastructure. Forget the toilets, shops, sunbeds, or parasols! The nearest hotel is actually the abandoned one, still worth visiting though – check the recommendation no. 14!

Agios Prokopios

If you cannot do without civilization, the best beach in Naxos in your case could be the blue-flagged Agios Prokopios. The golden sand here is thick and stretches over 1,5 kilometers.

The northern area of the beach is not developed so it attracts fewer crowds. The part closer to the town abounds with shops, restaurants, bars, and some water sports facilities – check the recommendation no. 2!

Saint George, Glyfada, Plaka, Agia Anna, Psili Ammos

There are more beaches worth exploring in Naxos. If you don’t want to go far from Naxos Town (Chora), the closest one is Agios Georgios / Saint George Beach. Its waters are shallow, which is perfect for families with young kids.

Just north of Alyko Beach, you can enjoy the sand dunes of Glyfada Beach! Even more famous dunes you will find at Plaka Beach, a 4-kilometer-long white-sand promenade. Its southern end, as well as the Agia Anna Beach south of Saint Nicolas Chapel, are popular among naturists. When you get to the chapel, find the shark-shaped rock for a fun photo opportunity!

On the eastern side of Naxos Island, the beach next to the Kanaki village is eponymous with ‘fine sand’. Psili Ammos is a lovely oasis of sand dunes, cedar forest, and clear waters.

2. Go scuba diving in Naxos with Blue Fin Divers

Agios Prokopios is not just a nice place for lazy beach days; it is also a departure point for some fantastic active holidays in Naxos!

The sea around the island is rich with natural wonders and civilization leftovers. This makes it an ideal location for snorkeling, freediving, and scuba diving. One can discover sea caves and reefs, but also wreckage sites teeming with marine life. In waters around Naxos, you can look for the plane wrecks from the Second World War, such as the torpedo bomber Bristol Beaufighter or German Arado seaplane. But there are also sunken ships such as the impressive Dutch vessel Marianna which finished its cargo shipping career in 1981!

Blue Fin Divers is a diving center at Agios Prokopios Beach that can organize these and other enriching scuba diving excursions for you! They offer PADI-certified training programs ranging from the Open Water Diver to Dive Master.

However, there is also a Bubble Maker program for kids, as well as a Discover Scuba Diving program for absolute beginners. I went through this introductory course that practically enabled me to experience my first dive with full equipment on seven meters of depth in just 2.5 hours!

The Discover Suba Diving program costs 60 Euros. If you want to experience one of the best things to do in Naxos undersea, you can do it with Blue Fin Divers from May till October.

Scuba diving astronauts in a rewarding universe

Panagiotis Niflis is an experienced diving instructor with two decades of professional love for the underwater. First, he provided personal instruction in the theory of scuba diving, which was both educational and fun. Then we put our wetsuits on and crossed over the beach full of bikini-clad observers.

With the heavy equipment, I walked proudly through the soft sand. I tried my best to look professional, and at least not trip over before I reached the shallow water. My first steps towards weightlessness really felt like embarking on an astronaut’s mission. Okay, with no countdown, applause, and live media reports.

After initial training in the shallow water, we slowly floated away into grander depths. Breathing underwater was an intense experience and one needs to approach it with utter respect. In mostly white sand surrounding, with several fun stops arranged by the dive center, such as an underwater bicycle, an abandoned toilet bowl, or a feeding spot for some colorful local fish, one could easily lose the sense of orientation. But with the vigilant eyes of Panos, and his Bulgarian assistants Aleksandra and Viktor, exploring the unknown Naxos universe seemed a reasonably safe thing to do.

After this basic introduction program, one could easily decide if scuba diving was for him/her or not. There were three of us about to dive that day. One did give up after the initial training in the shallow water.

For those who bravely stayed until the end of the basic course, scuba diving brought a real risk of becoming addicted. Especially with so many tempting baits in clear Naxos waters, plane and shipwreck sites, rich sea flora and fauna, one could easily trade the earthly pleasures of sun tanning on the beach for the otherworldly trip to Naxos below the sea level.

If you don't want your underwater photographs to be in blue and green tones like mine, learn what to do in our guide to underwater camera housings!

3. Surf the windswept beaches

There is a reason behind so many windmills built on the Cycladic Islands. Some of these monuments to Naxos winds are old, some are new. The modern wind turbines are located in the northeastern part of the island, while on Vivlos hills one can find three ancient windmills.

From May till September, Etesian or Meltemia winds blow over the Aegean Sea. These dry northern winds can be dangerous for sailors. But due to their steady nature in the afternoon hours, the passionate Naxos kiteboarders and windsurfers exploit them for their water sports.

Kite surfing on Mikri Vigla Beach

Mikri Vigla and the connected Orkos Beach may not be ideal for tourists looking for casual swimming. But if you like resting your eyes on kite surfers flying over the waves, these are the best Naxos spots to visit. The Meltem winds produce low rolling waves on Kastraki Beach / Sahara as well, so that’s another location worth visiting if you are a fan of this sport.

Windsurfing in Laguna

Laguna Beach, just north of Naxos Airport, is a favorite spot for windsurfers. They come from all over the world to power their sails in this wide shallow bay, making it one of the most popular windsurfing destinations in Greece. If you come just to watch, try to pair it with the air traffic at this not-so-busy airport. That way, you might even steal a selfie with an arriving/departing plane! Check Naxos Airport’s live schedule here.

4. Visit Portara – the Temple of Apollo, or – Dionysus?

Portara or the Great Door is a massive marble frame standing on the islet of Palatia, just by the main Naxos port. In ancient times, the land was connecting the two hills. After the rising of the sea, they constructed a causeway for easier access.

This monumental doorway is 6 meters tall and 3.5 meters wide and is a lonely remnant of a larger temple built during the reign of the Naxos tyrant Lygdamis, in the 6^th century BC. The ambitious ruler had a grand vision of a temple that would outshine the Zeus Temple in Athens or Hera’s Temple in Samos. But then the war with Samos required resources and the construction was stopped abruptly.

In the Middle Ages, Christians erected the church over the ruins, but even that building did not survive. The marble was used in the construction of Kastro (the Castle of Naxos) – see recommendation no. 12. Portara survived only because it was too heavy to dismantle; each of its columns supposedly weighs 20 tons!

A choice to build the entrance to an Ionian-style temple on the western side of the island was unusual, therefore it could have been intentional. The fact that Portara is facing Delos, the mythological birthplace of Apollo, could mean that the temple was dedicated to the most beautiful of Greek gods.

But some think that Portara was an entrance to the temple dedicated to Dionysus, the wine god, and patron of Naxos. Right after he had killed the Minotaur on Crete, Theseus left his beloved Minoan princess Ariadne just here, on Palatia beach. She was forced to marry Dionysus, and the first Dionysian festivities were held here.

While Palatia was the separation point for the two lovers, today it is a favorite meeting place for couples. Visiting Portara is one of the best things to do in Naxos at sunset.

5. Explore the Temple of Demeter in Sangri

The Temple of Demeter (Dimitra) is another architectural marvel built at about the same time as the Temple of Apollo. Erected around 530 BC, as one of the first Ionic temples, it was rediscovered in 1949, excavated and restored by the end of the century.

Located in Gyroulas, near the village of Sangri, this place had a religious purpose since the Bronze Age! The Mycenaean Civilization celebrated the cult of the gods in the open air. Then that same ruler Lygdamis ordered the building of the all-marble temple in the 6^th century, as a rehearsal for the Parthenon in the Athenian Acropolis. The magnificent edifice was dedicated to Demeter, the ancient goddess of grain, so she would protect the farmers and care for the fertility of Naxos land. It even had the pits where vegetable juices would be sacrificed to please her.

When Christianity took over the command, Demeter’s Temple faced the same destiny as Apollo’s one. Aiming to erase paganism, Christians demolished the archaic temple. They built their own basilica on the same site, with the same stone. But as in that Biblical proverb, “Live by the sword, die by the sword”… The Arabian invaders demolished the church. The German archeologists were the ones who rebuilt it in 1977.

The Temple of Demeter is an excellent place to explore how religious powers have changed throughout history. One can see it on the very archeological site but also learn more at the next-door Archeological Museum of Gyroulas. The small exhibition displays parts of the interior, ceramics, statues, and other found objects. The entrance is included in the 4-Euro ticket price.

6. Cycle to the Sanctuary of Iria

Another predecessor of the Parthenon is the Sanctuary of Iria, found in 1982. This peculiar place had a religious character from the 14^th century BC until today.

The archeologists actually identified four successive buildings plus a Christian basilica on the site, showing the uninterrupted history of worship.

After an open-air cult in the Mycenaean times (1300-1100 BC), the first temple was built around 800 BC. But the flooding of the nearby river Byblos destroyed it. Not an unusual event here, as it happened in 2004 too, after the excavation of the Archeological Park.

The sanctuary whose remains, in the form of several columns, we see today was built in 590-570 BC. The temple of Iria is considered to be the birthplace of the Ionic style.

Besides being important in the history of architecture, this temple has roots in the traditions of the area. It was dedicated to Dionysus, the adored god of wine and partying. Even today, there are vines growing on the sanctuary grounds.

The location of the Temple of Dionysus is in Iria (sometimes spelled Yria), close to Glinado Village, just four kilometers from Chora. It is an interesting stop if you’re heading for the beach of Agia Anna by bike, for instance. The entrance to the temple grounds is free and one of the best things to do in Naxos for all archeology fans.

7. Visit Naxos churches

Besides ancient temples, Naxos is dotted with notable churches that should get onto your itinerary. There are at least 5 Naxos churches you should consider including in your own list of the best things to do in Naxos.

Panagia Drosiani

On the road between Chalkio (Halki) and the village of Moni, the stone church of Panagia Drosiani was built in the 6^th century. It is the oldest Christian church on Naxos and one of the oldest ones in the Balkans. This Byzantine church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary of the rain who allegedly ended the times of drought on the island. Panagia Drosiani has very well-preserved murals of Jesus Christ, his mother, and other saints.

Agia Kyriaki

Located in Apeiranthos, this church has some unique frescoes from the 8^th and 9^th centuries. The restoration of the wall paintings secured Agia Kyriaki a prestigious EU Prize for Cultural Heritage in 2018 – the Europa Nostra Award.

Agios Georgios Diasoritis

Ten-minute walk away from Chalkio, the Byzantine Church of Saint George Diasoritis stands out in the idyllic surroundings. Its walls were built in the 11^th century. They decorated them with elaborate paintings of Saint George, Second Coming, etc.

Agios Mamas

Dating back to the 9^th century, Agios Mamas set in the green valley is just a short hike away from the village of Potamia. The chapel dedicated to the patron saint of the shepherds was originally a Greek Orthodox cathedral. At the beginning of the 13th century, it was converted into a Catholic church. There are interesting frescoes and sculptures kept inside, away from the public eye.

Stavros Keramotis

Located at the largest junction of the rural roads in Naxos, Stavros Keramotis is on this list mainly because of the views. It is the only place where one can see the sea on both sides of the island. The small whitewashed church is dedicated to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It was the only church from this list whose doors were actually open when I arrived.

8. Hike to Zeus Cave

Besides heavenly beaches and heaven-aspiring houses of worship, Naxos is also a hiking paradise! It has many tempting treks, but the mountainous village of Filoti is the starting point of its most famous hike – the one to the Zeus Cave!

Instead of walking all the way from Filoti, drive towards the Aria Spring and start hiking there! You cannot miss it; it is a dead-end street. The road also has a dead side, if I can call it like that. Driving by the daunting cliff with no guardrails is rather ominous. At the end of the road, you will see the forbidden-parking sign. Most people park their cars here. Because – where else?

From Aria Spring (Fontaine d’Aria on Google Maps), a place to refill your water bottle, continue uphill after the doors you should close behind. I assume this is for controlling the movement of goats you will probably encounter twenty minutes later, just before the Zeus cave.

Mount Zas grotto – the hiding place of god and shepherds

The cave will appear on your left-hand side. It brings a welcoming protection from the sun, especially if you didn’t start your climb in the early morning. One doesn’t need to be the shepherd or the farmer of the past to call it a sanctuary.

Zeus, the ruler of the Olymp gods, spent his childhood in this very cave, the myth says. Well, there is one in Crete that is also priding itself as an authentic hideaway of the little god. His father Cronos swallowed his children as soon as they were born, afraid of the prophecy that one of them would overthrow him. The mother Rhea hid Zeus in a cave and he grew up hiding in the mountain. Eventually, he did fulfill the prophecy and became the king of gods.

If you have good stamina, you can continue climbing for another hour to the top of Mount Zas, named after this divine survivor. At 1004 meters, it is the highest peak of not only Naxos but of all Cycladic archipelago. The summit provides great panoramic views.

9. See the impressive Naxos Marmor

Ancient Greece is not only the place of origin for the word ‘marble’, but also home to some of the finest type of this shining stone on the planet. The people of Naxos were the pioneers of marble; they introduced the broad use of the noble material in architecture and sculpture. The temples and statues on this list were all built of Naxian marble, white marble with the largest crystal grains on Earth!

The first time I had an opportunity to explore this precious stone up close was at the Delphi Archeological Museum. The Sphinx of Naxos displayed there is an impressive 2-meter tall statue that stood on the top of a 10-meter tall column in this famous religious center of ancient Greece.

Read more about Delphi, the center of the antic world here! 

If you type ‘Naxos Marmor’ in Google Maps, it will point you to a quarry near the village of Kinidaros, the modern-day center of Naxos marble mining. With precisely cut-out cuboid blocks of stone, the scenery looks surreal. It resembles an otherworldly place where Superman might’ve been growing up. Then again, he did, didn’t he? Except that he was called Zeus in this story.

10. Find Naxos Kouros statues in Melanes and Apollonas

The ancient marble quarries in Naxos were located near Melanes and Apollonas. These are the places where some of the remnants of the island’s glorious mining past still lay as witnesses.

They call them Kouroi (Kouros in the singular, literally meaning ‘beautiful man’). These ancient Greek freestanding monumental sculptures are meant to be the epitomes of the captivating beauty of young nude men. Some of these unfinished, roughly formed statues lay on the Naxos ground, abandoned due to the probable breakage that happened in transport.

Close to the village of Melanes in Central Naxos, there are two incomplete Kouroi statues. Kouros of Flerio lays in a shaded garden, tucked under a tree. Kouros of Faranghi (or Kouros of Potamia) is just meters away from where they cut out the stone. These oversized men (about 5 meters tall, and weighing above 5 tons each) are in a typical archaic, frontal, still position. They both date to the 6^th century BC and someone possibly cursed them with a “Break a leg” good wish.

In Northern Naxos, the stonemasons abandoned another impressive marble sculpture. Kouros of Apollonas, named after a village it still lies by, does not follow the Kouros rules. It has more distinctive facial features than those in Melanes. Actually, it seems to depict an older man (some call it the Colossus of Dionysus)! Additionally, instead of still arms close to the body, its right arm would have been stretched out. Kouros of Apollonas is also much bigger than the fellows in Melanes; it is 10.5 meters in length and weighs about 80 tons!

Admission to both Kouros graveyards is free, as long as you can find them. Some people tend to miss the signposts.

11. Explore the museums of Apeiranthos

If you want to learn more about Naxian marble, other marble, as well as other types of rocks, a small village on the slopes of Fanari Mountain is the place to go. In the central street of Apeiranthos (or Apiranthos), one can find marble stairs. But the true gems are at the Geological Museum! This place exhibits rocks, meteorites, and fossils, some as old as 70,000 years! For science nerds, visiting this museum is one of the best things to do in Naxos!

The charming village of barely one thousand citizens has an astonishing number of museums – five of them! Just above the Geological Museum, there is the Folklore Museum which displays local traditions, furniture, clothes, tools, instruments, etc. Another floor up, the Visual Arts Museum exhibits paintings, sculptures, and other artworks of the village’s many artists.

Natural History Museum has its own little room on the main road. Here, one can find skeletons of dolphins, the skull of a sperm whale, the shell of a turtle, snakes in formaldehyde, as well as a large flora collection.

Apeiranthos Archeological Museum exhibits the findings from the excavations in Naxos. It’s a one-room museum, but unlike the other four on this list, this one charges 3 Euros for the entrance.

With nice artistic workshops, charming cafés, and restaurant terraces, Apeiranthos is an ideal break from the exhaustion of the island exploring.

12. Climb to the Kastro of Naxos

Kastro of Naxos is the castle on the top of the hill of Naxos Chora. Marco II Sanudo, the Venetian Duke of the Archipelago, erected this citadel at the beginning of the 13^th century. It was the center of political power dominating the Cyclades for three centuries.

The medieval walls, composed of houses that were built there, still stand above Naxos Old Town. Inside, there are narrow streets, quiet squares filled with flowers and cats, Venetian mansions, churches, monasteries, and museums. It’s a calming area to get away from the Naxos sun and winds and enjoy the stroll among cafés, galleries, and terraces with picture-perfect views.

Look for the marble taken from the Temple of Apollo, used in the construction of the castle! It is a reminder of the constant recycling character of history. The castle built above the remains of the ancient acropolis is yet another addition to the ode of temporality on Naxos Island. Only the pieces of marble are strong enough to survive the ideas of those who believed they were building eternal monuments.

Chora’s Kastro is sometimes called Kato Kastro (or Lower Castle), in order to distinguish it from the Apano Kastro (Upper Castle), the fortification located on the hill above the village of Potamia. This construction project of the same duke never became a real settlement.

13. Visit the Venetian towers of Naxos

Besides Chora’s Kastro, Venetians built castles and towers strategically dotted over the entire Naxos territory. They were a protective shield against the pirates and had a special alarm system when one of them would get under attack. They would lit a large fire on the roof and, as in a domino effect, the neighboring towers would follow, quickly alarming all Venetian families on the island. Talk about the medieval version of WhatsApp!

You could visit many buildings from the Middle Ages while exploring the island. Only six of the most interesting Venetian towers entered our list of the best things to do in Naxos.

Fragopoulos Della Rocca Tower

Dating back to the 14^th century, Fragopoulos Della Rocca Tower in Kourounochori is one of the oldest fortified towers on Naxos. It is also a place where a future Duke killed his predecessor.

Barozzi-Gratsia Tower

The same as Fragopoulos, the 17^th-century Barozzi-Gratsia Tower in Chalkio has strong walls that are equipped with ‘murder holes’. They were designed to distract unwanted visitors – with scalding water!

Tower of Agia

The Tower of Agia, just before the village of Apollonas, was also built in the 17^th century. It was the summer house for the rich Kokkoi family.

Bazeos Tower

Bazeos Tower served as a monastery and today, it is a private cultural center hosting exhibitions, concerts, and other events.

Bellonia Tower

Bellonia Tower in Galanado is interesting because of the Church of St. John standing next to it. It has a double arch, with a separate Catholic and Orthodox altar, one of the Venetian diplomatic attempts.

Tower of Glezos

The Tower of Glezos stands on the northwestern gate of the Kastro of Naxos and is the only round tower on the island. It was home to the last generation of Dukes.

14. Explore the abandoned hotel in Alyko

On Alyko promontory, right above some of the most beautiful Naxos beaches (remember the recommendation of the best things to do in Naxos no. 1?), a skeleton of a hotel stands still. Abandoned some six decades ago, never to welcome guests to its rooms with a sea view, the crumbling building is frozen in time.

The ghost hotel turns heads only of beachgoers in need of shade, avid urban explorers excited by the architecture of the past, and street artists always looking for a new canvas.

They are an unexpected finding, the ambitious murals trying to inject some new beauty and meaning into this concrete monument to a failed business investment.

Okay, some of these can-equipped visitors leave just uncreative scribbles on the decaying building. But then there are true artists too, such as Wild Drawing (aka WD), who make the urban exploring of this Naxos hotel truly worthwhile.

This Bali-born Greek immigrant delivered many intriguing works to the outer walls of his new country, and we are happy to see that Alyko on Naxos often gets onto his summer itineraries. WD’s large murals that love to play with the environment in almost 3D realism, give a special value to the urbex adventure in Alyko’s empty hotel shell.

If this abandoned hotel project did anything for the tourism of Alyko, it brought the asphalt closer to the beaches one would need a car to explore anyway. The unexpected outcome of this architectural failure was that the dead-end street has ended up in – street art.

15. Eat Greek at To Elliniko

Naxos potatoes and cheeses are the founding stones of the island’s cuisine. To try these famous local ingredients, I visited the traditional kitchen of one of the best restaurants in Naxos. Eating local is, after all, one of the best things to do in Naxos, the most fertile Cycladic island.

To Elliniko literally means The Greek, and it delivers exactly the promised authenticity. The secret weapon in this family-run restaurant is mother Katerina who cooks with love and meraki (a Greek word describing passion, devotion, and leaving a piece of oneself in delivered work). Since 2008, the children of the Antoniou family have served the dishes from mom’s kitchen, while one of them, Giannis, continues to run the restaurant after Mixalis, the father of the family.

Behind the simple pot on the restaurant sign, lies equally simple homemade food. A starter woke up my stomach. It was a delicious infamous cheese platter with Naxos graviera, kefalotiri, and sour soft cheese!

The cheese, together with potatoes and vegetables, appeared in Kleftiko too. This slow-roasted baby goat dish is a Hellenic classic. Paired with Sauvignon Blanc and wrapped like a present, it was truly rewarding! Supposedly it was named after Klepths, the Greek bandits who would steal lambs and cook them in the underground pits to not draw attention. After trying this mouthwatering meal where meat was melting off of the bone, I could totally understand what made these guys become kleptomaniacs.

My dinner at To Elliniko finished with an orange cake and ice cream, and mom’s raki liqueur with pomegranate. In the outdoor setting of a garden centered around an old olive tree, and encircled by flowerpots, with approachable and friendly staff, it seemed like visiting an old friend’s house for dinner. The one you end up commenting on: “You guys should open your restaurant!”

16. Sweeten up your day in Chalkio

Once the capital of Naxos, Chalkio village (Halki) still rules the palates of its visitors. Come here for a treat or two!

At Dolce Vita, the charming retro-styled café/patisserie, life is sweet indeed. Surround yourself with old gramophones, black-and-white photographs, and wooden chests. Order portokalopita or orange pie, and you will lick your vintage plate clean!

For those who are old enough to drive, yet will not sit behind the wheel for this little excursion, the Vallindras Distillery is right next door. This is the central production place for kitron, Naxos’ own liqueur, produced from the leaves of the autochthonous local citrus.

The fruit of kitron, resembling a lemon on steroids, can grow up to two kilograms each but is good mainly for making jams. The leaves, however, end up in this 96 % alcoholic beverage, in three differently colored varieties (from the lightest green, via the balanced transparent one, and yellow being the strongest).

The Vallindras family has been producing kitron liqueur since 1986, and you can try it after a little tour of this alcoholic lab/museum.

17. Buy some pots by the road

When driving from the southeastern Naxos coast towards Chalkio, make sure to stop by the road in the Damalas area. You can hardly miss the spot, as both the house facade and the parking lot are tricked up with an enormous quantity of pots of various sizes, shapes, and colors. Besides this colorful exhibition place that turns heads on the main road, the same family owns another workshop in Damalas village itself.

Limpertas Manolis Pottery is a traditional pottery workshop in operation since 1937. On two locations, descendants of the fourth generation of potters from the island of Sifnos, produce both functional and decorative clay products.

Since their grandfather Chrysos brought craftsmanship to Naxos in the 1870s, the technology might have advanced a bit, but artistic endeavors remained the same. Through passing the knowledge and secrets of the trade from one generation to another, the family business is booming.

Enter this clay wonderland, and lose your gaze among the thousands of cups, bowls, vases, jars, figurines, and fridge magnets! You might get a quick lesson in the production processes, as well as choose a special Cycladic souvenir to bring home from Naxos!

17 best things to do in Naxos – Conclusion

With the highest mountain of the Cyclades, Naxos is the greenest island in this Greek archipelago. Mountains trap clouds, clouds produce water, and water makes plants and trees grow. This results in more bearable hikes and possible shade just by the beach, as well as more productive agriculture that triumphs on the plates and in the glasses of Naxos restaurants.

Whether you climb up the mountain home of Zeus, dive deep into the world of Poseidon, or surrender to the decadent feasts of Dionysus, Naxos is a place of divine experiences

Even if it is the center of the Cyclades, Naxos Island attracts fewer tourists, and one can explore its many archeological sites, medieval castles, churches, museums, and charming mountainous and seaside villages without the feeling of a mass-tourism rush.

Whether you climb up the mountain home of Zeus, dive deep into the world of Poseidon, or surrender to the decadent feasts of Dionysus, Naxos is a place of divine experiences. It is a destination where one can appreciate the beauty of the land, as well as its gifts, from food to marble.

Naxos integrates the richness of culture, the power of history, and the intrigue of mystery. Something sacred, whether one believes in God(s) or not. In true holidays, this island fights well to explain the ‘holly’ part.

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Before booking your trip to Naxos…

How many days do you need in Naxos?

After earlier two and three-day visits, on the most recent trip, I stayed four nights in Naxos and I still underestimated what the island has to give! If you like what you’ve read here, I advise you to extend your trip to a week. After all, one needs to set a human tempo for any holiday. With so many beaches the island is rightfully proud of, one has to tune down the exploring spirit at some point, and leave enough time to just enjoy the seaside and essentially do nothing.

What is the best area to stay in Naxos?

Most of the island’s visitors stay in Chora or on the southwestern coast, depending on the type of Naxos holidays they are looking for. Those who want to be in the center of the buzz and close to the port will opt for Naxos Town, and the others who prefer being next to the swimmable beaches will look for their Naxos accommodation in Plaka, Agia Anna, or Agios Prokopios.

Whether you’re looking for the most affordable or splurge option, you will find the best place to stay in Naxos here.

Getting to Naxos

The most typical way of arriving in Naxos is by ferry. If you’re traveling from Athens to Naxos, you can catch the ferry in Piraeus or in Rafina. There are different operators who will bring you to the island at varying speeds and prices, but typically you should be there in less than 6 hours. Typically Blue Star Ferries offers the most economical transfer to Naxos.

Naxos is also well-connected with other islands such as Paros, Mykonos, Santorini, Syros, Crete, Milos, Ios, Amorgos, Koufonisia, etc.

I typically check ferry options on the openseas.gr website and buy them in any port agency. Book them in advance for the best prices! Even in the times of pandemic, the connections could sell out (which I actually experienced once), because boats travel with reduced capacities. So don’t rely on the idea that people are traveling less these days, and buy your ticket on time!

Can you fly directly to Naxos?

Naxos Airport “Apollon” is not the busiest one, but it is connected with Athens. If you’re looking for a quick 30-minute flight, check the offers of Aegean Airlines, Olympic Air, or Sky Express.

How do you get around Naxos?

While there are bus connections between the main island points (which could suffice if all you want is maybe get from Chora to the beach and back), for true exploration of Naxos one should rent a car. It is after all the largest island in the Cyclades and with 430 square kilometers of tempting content, having a vehicle at your disposal is a true benefit.

I warmly recommend renting your car at Fun Car & Rides agency. They have an office just at Naxos port where you disembark the ferry, making the pick-up and drop-off rather simple. Even the smallest car in their fleet such as Fiat Panda will serve you well enough to bring you to the most elevated parts of the island. And with their roadside assistance, there is nothing to worry about! Plus, the staff will not only provide Naxos maps and suggestions of things to do in Naxos. They will also bring a smile to your face in the process! The choice of the company’s name was indeed appropriate!

Things to do in Naxos and Paros – which one is better?

Is Naxos or Paros better? After repeated visits to both islands, I would say that Naxos is my favorite. Simply, there is a greater diversity of things to do in Naxos. It constantly invites you to check what’s behind the next corner! That being said, Paros does have its indisputable charm that even Hollywood stars cannot resist. The islands are neighbors, and why would you even consider not going to both? For Paros’ travelers, you might find useful our guide to Naoussa with the top 10 things to do there.

Disclosure: My scuba diving lesson with Blue Fin Divers, rent-a-car service at Fun Car & Rides, as well as dinner at To Elliniko, were complimentary, but all opinions are my own.

Also, this post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on them and make a purchase, Pipeaway might make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our work!

The post 17 Best Things to Do in Naxos: Haven for Zeus, Heaven for Us appeared first on Pipeaway.

Kaunas is the European Capital of Culture of 2022. The title will undoubtedly bring flocks of new visitors to Lithuania’s second-largest city. But for one reason, Kaunas is the world capital. The Devils’ Museum has the largest collection of devil art on Earth.

Located 110 kilometers west of Vilnius, the address V. Putvinskio gatvė 64 is home to the Žmuidzinavičius Museum, better known as the Devils’ Museum. Thousands of tourists visit this original museum every year, putting it at the top of the Kaunas must-see list.

With constantly submitted artworks, Devil’s Museum collection surpassed 3.000 exhibits

The unique collection of devil art, one of its kind, was initiated by the prominent Lithuanian painter and art collector Antanas Žmuidzinavičius (1876-1966). In 1906, somebody gave him a Samogitian Devil as a present. Then he received another one, and another one, and one more. Soon, the painter’s home address became a post box for hundreds of devil statues seeking adoption.

He wanted to acquire thirteen dozen of them (169), but in the end, he had 260! He exhibited them in his house, in the painting studio. Five years before his death, Žmuidzinavičius donated them to the state.

This peculiar devil art collection was opened to the public after he died, but gained huge popularity. In 1982, it had to move to the wing next to the memorial museum. As the Devil Museum of Kaunas still accepts donations from visitors, the actual number of devil artifacts continually grows. It already surpassed 3.000 exhibits!

If you want to experience another mysterious side of Kaunas, join this ghost tour of the Old Town!

The devil is in the details

The cleaning lady carefully polishes the glass cases in which they display the devils. Fingerprints should not obstruct the view.

But everybody wants to point at their favorite devil. Thousands of visitors every year walk through the three floors of the exhibition, carefully reading the stories about this most unusual museum display. There are many fingers involved. Everyone is brave to point at the devil if he is behind the glass.

These are not just works of fine and applied arts. These are not just piles of souvenirs and masks. The Devil’s Museum provides a thorough insight into the world of the devil, the mysterious and intriguing mythological creature.

Whether they are painted on silk or canvas, whether they are carved in wood, made of ceramic, stone, glass, or paper, whether they come like masks or like usable objects such as pipes or ashtrays, these devils act as witnesses to the evolution of explaining the world.

Interested in unusual museums? Make sure to also visit the Romanian Kitsch Museum in Bucharest!

Devil art rooted in paganism or Christianity?

In the pre-Christian tradition, the devil was considered to be a Chthonic being, one of the three highest mythological deities – alongside God, the creator, and the Thunder, the one who preserves the order.

The underworld and everything connected to the earth’s surface were assigned to the devil. This included plants, animals, farmers, and craftsmen.

In its folkloric version, the devil didn’t follow the rules. He was making hills instead of flat land, creating bats instead of birds, planting weeds instead of flowers.

Lithuania considered him the richest mythological being, the one directly associated with money. He could even buy one’s soul.

Furthermore, people believed that the devil was making the windmill wings turn. That is why millers were rich people.

In the Christian tradition, the devil (aka Satan/Lucifer/Beelzebub/Antichrist) was depicted as a fallen angel, the one who rebelled against God. God, therefore, punished him and threw him into Hell.

For those interested in the Satan's playground itself, Vietnam is home to a hell cave. It's called Am Phu Cave, and it's a must-visit attraction of the Marble Mountain. 

A priest behind the Devils’ Museum in Kaunas

One representative of Christianity actually took a significant role in establishing Žmuidzinavičius’ new hobby. It was Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, the priest.

The parson of Laižuva Holy Trinity church donated the so-called “Trampled Devil” to the artist.

The artwork was created in the 18^th century, and Žmuidzinavičius recalls the episode of its arrival in his memoirs: “It was taken from the altar of Archangel Michael of the church of Laižuva. Here, the archangel ordered by God is trampling the devil, rebellious against God, and slams him into hell. Unfortunately, only the legs of the archangel remain in the composition. Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas sawed the archangel off as it was very high; it was inconvenient to bring such a huge thing to Kaunas by train.”

Did you know that Lithuania is where the geographical center of Europe is located? Right there, close to Vilnius, you can find another extraordinary museum worth visiting - Europos Parkas. 

Lords of the underworld from the entire world

After the priest’s unusual gift, the lords of the underworld started arriving in Kaunas from all corners of the globe. More than 70 countries had some devil art to share, and this included former Soviet republics, but also countries such as Japan, Cuba, and Mexico.

Today, the Devil’s Museum covers a broad spectrum of public events connected to the devil as well. From the Devil’s Feast in Venezuela via Walpurgis Night in Germany to the tradition of the American Halloween, Bulgarian carnivals, and St. Nicholas/Krampus in southeastern Europe, this Lithuanian museum honors the main festivals where the devils claim their place.

In Lithuania, during Shrove Tuesday festivities, the revelers wear masks and costumes, frequently the devil ones, while they try to frighten and intimidate. They create noise, dance, and sing. At the end of the event, they burn a figure of a woman (in different regions of Lithuania, they call her Kotre, More, or Čiučela). This should symbolize the end of winter.

Sympathy for the Lithuanian devil

Nobody counted the Lithuanian names for the count of the darkness, but experts estimate that there are more than a thousand.

Kipšas (the dickens), Pinčiukas (the deuce), Bevardis (the nameless), Bekelnis (the trouserless), Biesas (the evil force), Ponaitis (the young master), and Negerasis (the not-good one) are just some of them.

More than 5.000 Lithuanian legends and fairy tales mention the devil, and about 400 Lithuanian places bear the name of the beast; Velnio Duobe (Devil’s Hole), Velniaraistis (Devil’s Bog), and Velniabale (Devil’s Swamp) are just some of the places that let the devil into their world.

Once a man argued with a devil who was smarter. The man said that the devil would be cleverer if he got into a hole drilled in the wall. The devil got in, and the man hammered a rowan plug into it

However, even if the Lithuanian devil likes bogs, swamps, marshes, and puddles, it is believed he actually lives under stumps or rocks. He loves to sit on large stones and boulders, too.

More than 150 boulders with footprints are known in Lithuania, and it is believed that more than half of them belong to the devil.

One can find the Lithuanian devil at mills or crossroads as well, especially if one calls his name at night or whistles.

Besides the instructions on how to invite the devil, the Devils’ Museum teaches its visitors also how to defend themselves from the spell-binds or how to make the elixir of youth that sent many witches (devil’s brides) into flames during the Inquisition times. Yes, there is an actual recipe on the wall!

The shape of the devil

So now that you know you have to come to the crossroads at midnight, say “Our Father” backward and whistle for the devil to arrive, will you actually recognize him?

Lithuanian tales tell us that he could appear as a horse, a pig, a ram, or a goat. He could also appear as a man.

The devil could manifest himself as a nobleman, a hunter, a priest, or a German.

He may be dressed in black and red, but also in green.

The devil could appear as a shoemaker, a musician, or a blacksmith.

He may be young or old. But if he is young, he will be extremely handsome.

What are Stalin and Hitler doing in the Devil’s Museum?

The power of the devil is obviously very seductive. The two horned devils in Kaunas Devil Museum are easily identifiable and attract visitors’ attention.

In 1975, the artist Kazys Dereškevičius created a sculpture representing the historic figures of Stalin and Hitler, but with devil’s horns protruding through their foreheads.

The artwork “My Lithuania” shows two dictators running over a mountain of human skulls.

The artist was referring to the events between 1939 and 1941 when Lithuania and other Eastern European countries were annexed to the Soviet Union. Stalin and Hitler brought pain to innocent people and affected the lives of millions.

Sure, the devil and death are often associated with each other. But the connection between the two has never been as prominent as in the case of the two infamous European executioners.

British artist Mason Storm crucified Donald Trump's figure and asked a controversial question in Basel - Saint or sinner? Should he have sent the art piece to Kaunas instead? 

Devil art in the Devil’s Museum – Kaunas must-see

As quite a unique project, Devil Museum should find its place in the ultimate Kaunas must-see list! Not widely known, but still a precious town attraction, this place has seduced tourists for more than half a century.

Even if the pressure from the visitors is not the same as it was in the times when the museum space had to go through enlargement, it seems that the Devil’s Museum’s appeal is not dying down easily.

Kaunas already received the European Heritage Label as well as the title of UNESCO City of Design, mainly thanks to the numerous Art Deco buildings they constructed during the interwar period.

With the logo of the European Cultural Capital of 2022, Kaunas will orbit itself again into the skies. At least for a year, the fallen angels of Devil Museum of Lithuania might get their wings back.

If you are looking for the most affordable flights to Lithuania, check your options here! For the best accommodation in Kaunas and their latest prices, click here!

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