What if the most interesting museum for your next trip isn’t the one that appears in travel guides? An online map gathers more than 1,200 strange, quirky, and niche museums scattered around the world, ranging from collections devoted to the most unlikely objects to places that turn failures, ended relationships, drunken nights, and movie monsters into true exhibitions.
Created by James Lees, a physicist, science communicator and museum consultant known online as James Visits Museums. What began as a personal project has grown thanks to user tips, reaching almost 1,500 addresses according to the latest updates. The map includes museums so peculiar they seem invented: there are those dedicated to potatoes, toilets, dogs, hangovers and even failed relationships. They are the so-called micromuseums, small spaces built around an object, a passion or a very precise story.
We browsed the Weird Museum Map and selected ten of the most absurd and peculiar museums, across Europe, the United States, Japan and Italy. Some make you smile, others leave you clearly perplexed, and at least one is best left for last.
Museum of Broken Relationships, Croatia
What remains of a love story when it’s over? A pair of shoes, a letter, a plush toy, or an object that seems insignificant. In Zagreb these fragments of ended relationships have become a museum collection. The Museum of Broken Relationships grows from the idea of gathering anonymously donated personal objects from people who have experienced a breakup.
The museum originated in Croatia from the idea of artists Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić and has become a true international institution. The collection keeps growing thanks to donations, and the museum only exhibits a portion of the items gathered.
Museum of Bad Art, USA
If you’re used to entering museums to admire masterpieces, be aware that the rule here is completely different. The Museum of Bad Art, known as MOBA, is dedicated to works that would hardly find space in a traditional art museum. The project started in 1994 with a simple, irresistible idea: collect, preserve, and display art so “wrong” that it becomes interesting precisely because of it. The collection counts almost 900 works, even though the space available can show only a portion at a time.
According to the museum’s criteria, the pieces must not only be aesthetically “ugly,” but also honest and have something that went wrong, producing a result capable of arousing curiosity. Today MOBA has a venue in Boston, inside the Dorchester Brewing Co. with free admission, while the project also includes touring exhibitions and a gallery in Québec City.
Museum of Failure, Sweden
The Museum of Failure was born in 2017 in Sweden from the idea of psychologist and researcher Samuel West and gathers examples of innovations, products, and services that did not achieve the expected outcome. Among its items are some famous commercial and technological flops, transformed into opportunities to tell what happens when a seemingly brilliant idea doesn’t work.
The most curious part is that today the Museum of Failure isn’t a permanent museum in Sweden: it’s a traveling exhibition that has toured several countries. The official site lists temporary venues in cities such as Paris, New York, Taipei, Budapest and San Francisco. The concept, however, remains the original one: to celebrate failure as part of the innovation process.
Museum of Hangovers, Croatia
From relationships gone wrong to nights out gone even worse, Zagreb is also home to the Museum of Hangovers, a museum entirely devoted to what happens after a night out. The exhibit narrates real stories of drunken escapades gathered from people around the world and turns them into an interactive experience. There are eight themed environments, bizarre objects, games, photographs, and even a simulator that lets you experience how perception and reaction times change under the influence of alcohol.
Among the attractions is the so-called “drunk floor,” a sloped surface to traverse while wearing special glasses that simulate the effects of intoxication. The visit ends with a small shot of rakija, reserved for adults. The museum is open daily from 9:00 to 22:00 and the adult ticket costs €10 online or €11 on-site.
Godzilla Museum, Japan
Could Japan do without a museum dedicated to Godzilla? The Godzilla Museum is located on Awaji Island, inside the Nijigen no Mori park, and is described by the organizers as the world’s first permanent museum dedicated to the famous kaiju. Here you can see materials related to the character’s history, models, dioramas, props, and even the costume used for filming.
But the real peculiarity lies right outside the museum: a gigantic Godzilla replica stretching about 120 meters in length, part of the Godzilla Interception Operation attraction. The route lets visitors enter the monster’s world through films, missions, target shooting, and a zipline that passes through Godzilla’s mouth.
Museum of Dung, Emilia-Romagna
The name leaves little room for imagination: this is precisely about that, but the project is decidedly more serious than the title might imply. The Museum of Dung was founded in 2015 in Castelbosco, in the Piacenza area, by entrepreneur Gianantonio Locatelli and a group of artists, designers and curators. The starting point is the manure produced daily by the farm’s livestock: rather than treating it as waste, the project transforms it into raw material to produce energy, fertilizer, materials and even works and objects.
Museum of Cuchi, Veneto
What could be more harmless than a small terracotta whistle? A collection born from the passion of Gianfranco Valente, comprising about 12,000 pieces. The Museum of Cuchi in Cesuna houses specimens from around the world, taking on forms, colors and meanings entirely different. The “cuco” is a much older and more interesting object than it seems: throughout history it has been used to imitate birdsong, as a talisman, as a toy, and even as a token of love.
Museum of Mummies, Umbria
Going down into the crypt of Santa Stefano Church, in the hamlet of Precetto, the journey takes a decidedly more Gothic turn. The Museum of Mummies in Ferentillo preserves mummified remains of people buried in the crypt from the 16th to the 19th century. When, after the Napoleonic edict prohibiting burials inside inhabited areas, the bodies were exhumed, some had naturally preserved along with details like hair, teeth, nails and clothing.
Börje’s Tie Museum, Sweden
Nearly 9,000 neckties, each different, are housed at Börje’s Tie Museum, tucked away in the Swedish countryside near Ramnaklev, born from the private collection of Börje Gustafsson. The passion began in 2004 when he bought a large quantity of ties during a sale. Since then the collection has grown through further purchases and donations, eventually making it necessary to build new spaces to store it. Admission isn’t fixed-price, but a charitable donation is encouraged, while opening hours vary and visits are by appointment.
Icelandic Phallological Museum, Iceland
Here we are at the museum that probably no one would have imagined appearing on a list of museums. The Icelandic Phallological Museum in Reykjavik is dedicated to phallology and hosts a collection of specimens from various animal species. The museum’s history began with a few whale specimens donated to founder Sigurður Hjartarson and has gradually expanded thanks to donations from around the world.
The museum is located in central Reykjavík, Hafnartorg, and is open everyday from 10:00 to 19:00.
