The World’s Weirdest Museums

Imagine seeing an exhibition of dog collars, or finding a museum that pays homage to Japan‘s most famous instant noodles. Strange, right? These are just a mere two examples of the weirdest museums you can find around the world.

Today at Civitatis, we bring you a selection of different galleries that exhibit items that you would never expect to find in a museum. Turkey, Iceland, Italy… Which one would you visit?

Icelandic Phallological Museum

Did you know that in Reykjavik you can find one of the most bizarre museums in the world? What began in 1997 as a clear biological research mission, ended up becoming an exhibition open to the public where different examples of phalluses are shown. Can you think of anything weirder than going to a penis museum?

The exhibition features 210 types of penises – or parts of them – belonging to the mammals that inhabit Iceland. You can see everything from a hamster penis measuring 2 millimetres to a sperm whale penis measuring 1.7 metres in length and weighing more than 70 kilos!

Underwater Museum of Art

An underwater museum? You read that right! The MUSA, located in Cancún, first opened in 2009 and instantly became one of the rarest museums in the world.

It displays more than 500 submerged sculptures, which have become home to a variety of marine creatures in the area, especially coral. To visit this museum you must put on a wetsuit and descend about 6 metres into the crystalline waters of Mexico. Undoubtedly, a visit to this gallery is a unique combination of art and nature.

Cup Noodles Museum

If you love these world-famous noodles, you cannot miss this museum in Osaka, Japan. Here you’ll find a wide range of instant noodles exhibited as if it were a work of Velázquez. This centre, also called the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, is another of the strangest museums in the world.

Inside, you’ll learn how this traditional Japanese dish is made, the types of noodles used, how the broth is prepared, etc. But, while you can learn the traditional recipe, this museum exhibits only the instant pre-cooked version. As an added bonus, aside from learning about the history of ramen, visitors can also participate in cooking workshops and tastings.

Dog Collar Museum

Next, we go to the city of Leeds, in the United Kingdom, to visit another of the most peculiar museums in the world. Surprisingly, almost half a million people visit the exhibition every year!

In the manor house of Leeds Castle, there’s an exhibition of dog collars. Inspired by the love that the former owner of the house had for these animals, the exhibition has more than 100 unique objects, as well as historical documents of canine accessories from different periods. You can even find dog collars dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries!

Museum of Bad Art

Located in an old basement of a town in Massachusetts in the United States, we find none other than the Museum of Bad Art.

Deformed portraits, garish colours, unimaginable perspectives… On the walls of this museum, visitors can see more than 600 works on display that you would never expect to grace the halls of museums like the Prado or the Louvre. It’s a space that celebrates the unique visions of artists whose work may not otherwise be recognized or appreciated.

Museum of Broken Relationships

When love ends…what do we do with all the gifts, letters and romantic poems? It would be a pity if all those memories ended up in the trash. This is how another of the world’s weirdest museums came into being, in Zagreb, Croatia.

The Museum of Broken Relationships was founded by a couple who, after breaking up, decided to collect everything they shared in their four-year relationship: books, coffee pots, spoons, shoes, Valentine’s Day gifts… In addition to the couple’s belongings, the museum also displays objects from friends who went through the same situation.

Shit Museum

If you thought you had seen it all…. You were wrong! In the Shit Museum, located in Castelbosco in northern Italy, you can find cow excrement that has been converted into sculptures.

The owner, Giantonino Lucatelli, decided to use the manure from his more than 2,500 cows to make fertilizer and building materials. With this, he was able to create different works of contemporary art made, basically, out of poop. It’s definitely one of the most bizarre museums in the world!

Chez Galip Hair Museum

The last on our list of the world’s weirdest museums is located in Avanos, Turkey. The story of this peculiar place began in 1979, when a friend of Galip, the owner of the establishment, gave him a lock of hair as a souvenir before leaving.

Since then, Galip began collecting locks of hair from everyone who visited his pottery workshop located in this town in Cappadocia. More than 16,000 locks of hair with their names and addresses are currently on display. If you want, when you visit this museum, your hair can even become part of the collection!