It’s one of the best museums in Hamburg and one of the most visited in Germany. Opened in 2003 by two model enthusiasts, Miniatur Wunderland has reached has more than 18 million visitors. In order to create all the models on display, surprisingly rich in details, 760 thousand hours of painstaking work have been needed.
Miniatur Wunderland is a wonderful journey around the world. From Hamburg to the USA, through Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia, Italy… The museum takes us on a journey through some of the most evocative urban scenarios on the planet. The miniaturized reconstructions are inspired by reality, but they are also the result of the imagination and creativity of the creators. In Germany, for example, there are completely invented buildings. The lighting of the rooms, which are immersed at regular intervals in the dark, makes the journey through the beautiful miniaturized landscapes even more realistic and exciting.
The trains of Miniatur Wunderland
The trains are the main actors in the museum. Wagons, locomotives and small trains of the most varied models whizzing along the tracks of the miniature world, crossing bridges, tunnels and traversing amazing mountains. A world of railway stations, from the small Riomaggiore station (in Cinque Terre, Italy), to the gigantic Hamburg station (in Germany).
The journey in Miniatur Wunderland is a sustainable journey, aboard one of these trains, of various models and colors, which are found within miniature landscapes.
A curiosity: in the museum restaurant the armchairs and tables are a reproduction of the seats of a train. So even during the coffee break, you can experience the atmosphere of a train journey.
Italy
Italy is reproduced with over 500 buildings that meticulously represent the reality, adding also imaginative details. Walking among the miniaturized scenarios of Bel Paese you can admire monuments, parks, cities and natural wonders.
Rome impresses you with the suggestive Trevi fountain, which lights up at night, the Colosseum, the Vatican, and St. Peter’s Basilica. The Roma Termini train station, with the coming and going of cars, taxis, buses and people. Here there is also a peddler with three piglets tied to a rope.
Near the city of Rome, you can find the miniature reproduction of the suggestive park of the Pyramid of Bomarzo, a hidden place to see in Italy. There is also a miniature in the miniature: the theme park “Italy in Miniature” with the main Italian monuments reproduced even more in miniature.
South Italy impress you with the miniaturized colorful houses of the Amalfi Coast, and the Vesuvius volcano that erupts. A curiosity: for its surface was used real lava stone, and its construction took a year and a half of work.
You can admire the amazing Cinque Terre, with Riomaggiore and its railway station between the two galleries. Colored houses, clothes hanging in the sun, fishermen, people sitting in restaurants, vineyards and olive groves overlooking the sea. In the miniaturized Liguria, you can find also a lesser-known destination: the small village of Schiara, near Campiglia.
Venice is one of the most beautiful reproductions of miniaturized Italy. Among the famous Bridge of Rialto, the Basilica of San Marco with its golden domes, the ducal palace… the details are many and could take hours to observe them all.
The flowered terraces and the green gardens hidden among the houses, the carpenters who work for the construction of the gondolas, the free dogs for the city, the pigeons, the work in progress in the streets, the electric wires and the air conditioners on the facades of the houses, the works that invade the city during the Art Biennale …
By operating some buttons, positioned along the entire path, the installations become interactive. Thus, for example, an earthquake causes a house in Pompeii to collapse, or, in a little shop in Tuscany, Geppetto observes Pinocchio’s nose stretching out.
Switzerland and Austria
The reproduction of the Alps, with tunnels, ski lifts, funiculars, and wild nature is perhaps the most majestic of Miniatur Wunderland. Switzerland, with its striking mountains, is spread over two floors. At the center, the Cervino mountain, a reproduction almost six meters high. Here you can also find the lift of Hammetschwnd, the highest external lift in Europe.
One of the most appreciated reproductions by children is the Lindt chocolate factory. By pressing a button, the factory starts the production of real chocolate, and after a minute you can have a miniaturized bar of small chocolate to taste.
USA: from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas
Between long tunnels and mountains, you can discover the Grand Canyon, the Yosemite Park, a nice Christmas village (where all the time is Christmas), and the strange buildings of Las Vegas. The city in the desert surprises by night with its lights (over three thousand LEDs) and the realistic models of some of its most famous hotels.
Hamburg, Germany
The model of Hamburg is an incredible intertwining of bridges, canals, railways. In between, playgrounds, cathedrals, stations, museums, fire brigades dealing with a fire, ships, and boats moving over the water. The symbolic building of the city, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie occupies 3 square meters of surface and cost 350,000 euros for its realization. By pressing a button the reproduction of the building designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron opens, showing the interior with the beautiful concert hall during a show.
Miniatur Wunderland is located in one of the beautiful red-brick buildings of the Speicherstadt, the historic warehouse complex in Hamburg, one of the largest in the world. Coming out of the museum, and walking in the “real” city, buses and trains whiz across the bridges, boats moving slowly along the canals, just like in the models of Miniatur Wunderland. ” Did we get into a model? ” After a visit to the museum, you can see the city of Hamburg with new eyes!
