See the 10 most beautiful museums in the world

Here are the world’s 10 most beautiful museums you should have on your bucket list.

Where does art meet history? If there is an accurate answer, my money will be on museums. Art, culture, history, science, dwelling together in some of the world’s most aesthetically pleasing edifices. 

One can say it is only befitting that collections of such importance as aforementioned are housed in places whose beauties are deserving of them. But, the creativity and elegance that some museums boast of are almost more than anything deserves. Humanity has made museums some of the most remarkable structures ever erected, from floating sphere-shaped buildings to ones that completely transform city skylines. Should you be a lover of arts, history, and breathtaking locations, this list of the world’s most beautiful museums will make your day.

See the 10 most beautiful museums in the world

10. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

Crowned with an octagonal dome, the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Art History in Austria is located in the palatial building on Ringstraße, Vienna. It was opened around 1891 by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary at the same time as the Natural History Museum in Vienna. Per Wiki, “the building is rectangular in shape, with symmetrical Renaissance Revival façades of sandstone lined with large arched windows on the main levels and topped with an octagonal dome 60 metres (200 ft) high. The interior of the museum is lavishly decorated with marble, stucco ornamentation, gold-leaf and murals.”

Designed by Gottfried Semper and Baron Karl von Hasenauer, the museum houses arguably the best art collections of the Baroque and Renaissance era. You also find Egyptian collections, including mummies, coffins, jewelry, bronze, and tablets. Other collections available in the Kunsthistorisches are ancient manuscripts, books, and a collection of over 600,000 coins.

9. Museu do Amanhã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Science freaks will bow at this marvel. Nicknamed The Museum of Tomorrow, Museu do Amanhã is a science museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Situated next to the waterfront at Pier Maua, it is designed by Spanish neo-futuristic architect Santiago Calatrava. Perhaps its biggest physical attraction is its ravishing architectural design. Visitors are treated to five main areas of exhibitio; Cosmos, Earth, Anthropocene, Tomorrow, and Us, all of which feature some experiments and experiences.

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8. Museo Soumaya, Plaza Carso, Mexico City, Mexico

Covered in 16,000 hexagonal aluminum tiles, The Museo Soumaya is a private museum in Mexico City. It is a non-profit cultural institution with two museum buildings. The museum has over 66,000 works from 30 centuries of art including sculptures from Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, 19th- and 20th-century Mexican art. It features works by European old masters and masters of modern western art like: Auguste Rodin, Salvador Dalí, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Tintoretto. Museo Soumaya was designed by design curator and architect, Fernando Romero’s company,  fr·ee.

7. The Museum Of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar

Situated on one end of the seven-kilometer-long waterfront, Doha Corniche is Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art. The free-to-visit museum was created to showcase a combination of traditional Islamic architecture and modern geometric architecture styles. It is home to 1,400 years worth of religious art and artifacts. Its collection includes metalwork, ceramics, jewelry, woodwork, textiles, and glass from three continents and dating from the 7th to the 20th century. Deemed one of the world’s most complete collections of Islamic artifacts, the museum has items originating in Spain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, India, and Central Asia.

6. The Louvre, Paris, France

Situated in the city reputed as the most beautiful in the world, Paris, and home to some of the best-known works of art, including the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the sculpture of Aphrodite, The Louvre is the world’s most-visited museum. Not only is it the most visited, but it is also the largest museum in the world, spanning an area of 72,735 square meters. The Musée du Louvre contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art, with 38,000 of them from prehistory to the 21st century.

5. Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), Seattle, Washington

The Museum of Pop Culture, or MoPOP, is a nonprofit museum founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000 as the Experience Music Project. It is dedicated to modern pop culture art and features urban exhibits such as Minecraft The Exhibition and the Body of Work Tattoo Culture. There are also exhibits of other genres like science fiction literature, horror cinema, and then some. MoPOP features the world’s largest collection of artifacts, hand-written lyrics, personal instruments, and original photographs celebrating the music and history of Seattle musician Jimi Hendrix and the band Nirvana. Frank Gehry designed the unique architecture, which allows for the building material to be seen in the building’s interior.

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4. Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Displaying works from the rich collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, The Vatican Museums located in the Vatican City is home to the most renowned Roman sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. The museums, founded by Pope Julius II in the early 16th century, consist of the Gregorian Egyptian Museum featuring several ancient Egyptian artifacts and the Jewish Lapidarium, which contains ancient scriptures in the form of stone tablets. Together, the Vatican Museums rank among the most visited in the world. Despite seeing an 81% drop in visitors in 2020 due to COVID, the museums were still visited by 1.3 million persons and ranked fourth on the list of most visited museums.

3. Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Deemed the largest art museum in the world by virtue of gallery space, The State Hermitage Museum of art and culture in Russia was founded in 1764. Empress Catherine the Great’s acquisition built its reputation with an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. The museum holds a collection of 3 million art pieces split into about 16,000 paintings within its 10,000 galleries and 60,000 rooms. Famous pieces like Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna Litta and Rembrandt’s Danae are part of the artworks found there. The museum has six buildings —the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage, and Hermitage Theatre— and five are open to the public. Entrance is free every third Thursday of every month.

2. Moscow State Historical Museum, Moscow

Russian history resides in the State Historical Museum in Moscow. Founded in 1872 by Ivan Zabelin, Aleksey Uvarov is situated between the Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Per Wiki, its exhibitions range from relics of prehistoric tribes that lived in the territory of present-day Russia to priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty. It holds over a million items, among which are a longboat excavated from the banks of the Volga River and gold artifacts of the Scythians.

1. The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry outdid himself with the magnificent design of The Guggenheim-Bilbao Museum. It was opened on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spain, with an exhibition of 250 contemporary works of art. The museum, which is one of the largest in Spain, is one of many museums owned by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. It offers a vast collection of paintings from prolific artists like 20th-century aesthetic theorist Vasily Kandinsky. The contents of the interior are almost matched by the beauty of the exterior, which is a complete work of art in itself. The reflective building lights up at night and creates amazing optical illusions. It is said that the design was a game-changer in the world of architecture around the globe.

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