The Museum of Pathological Anatomy is, without joke, one of the creepiest museums in Vienna; you need to have very strong nerves to calmly look at its exhibits. Narrenturm or the Tower of Fools is the oldest hospital for the mentally ill in continental Europe. Its history begins in 1784, when Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, ordered the reconstruction of the Invalides' Home into a state-of-the-art hospital. The hospital was divided into three large parts: a maternity hospital, a hospital and an area for the mentally ill. Moreover, the last department captivated the emperor so much that it turned into his private project, which he financed not from the treasury, but with his own money.
Emperor Joseph II was a member of the Masonic lodge, and was also seriously interested in alchemy, so it is not at all surprising that his hobbies were reflected in the appearance of the tower of madmen in Vienna. The Tower of Fools is a round building with five floors, 28 rooms each, with an area of only 13 square meters on each. During the time of Joseph II, there were no bars or doors here - patients, who were generally given only three diagnoses (dementia, melancholy and insanity), could calmly walk around all floors, and the most violent ones were simply chained to their beds. The patients were also treated in very simple ways: they gave emetics, bled and everything like that; no psychotherapists worked with them.
After the death of Joseph II, the conditions for keeping the mentally ill in the Tower of the Insane became stricter: doors appeared and straitjackets began to be used. In addition, a high wall appeared around the Tower of Fools, which was supposed to protect patients from curious onlookers who regularly came here just to gawk. In 1852, a second psychiatric hospital was opened in Brünlfeld, to which most patients were sent, and only those who, according to doctors, were terminally ill, were kept in the Lunatic Tower.
And in 1869, the hospital in the Tower of Fools was closed. For more than half a century, the premises were empty, and only in 1920 it became a dormitory for nurses working at the Central Hospital. Since 1971, the Tower of Madmen has housed one of the most terrible museums in Vienna - the Pathological Museum, which is part of the Natural History Museum of Vienna.
The exhibits presented in the Museum of Pathological Anatomy are not for the faint of heart. Here there are human organs preserved in alcohol, mummified bodies, embryos with congenital mutations, in general, all this is somewhat similar to the famous exhibition of the Russian Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg. You need to have stamina nervous system, before going to this museum, but despite all the horror, the museum is very interesting.
The Pathological Museum is open only two days a week: Wednesday from 10:00 to 18:00 and Saturday from 10:00 to 13:00. The ticket price is 2 euros (under 19s are free), and if you want to join the tour you will have to pay €6 per person (€4 for schoolchildren).
You can get to the Tower of Madmen on foot from the Alser Straße or Schottentor metro stations; you will need to walk a little more than a kilometer. The exact address of the museum is: Pathologisch-anatomische Sammlung im Narrenturm-NHM, Spitalgasse 2, Uni-Campus Hof 6, 1090 Wien. Phone: +43 1 52177606.
Spending time in a museum usually does not bring any negative emotions, however, in rare cases the opposite happens. There are museums on the planet that are not recommended for the faint of heart, because the exhibits they display are so creepy.
FACES OF DEATH IN THE MUMMY MUSEUM
The Mummy Museum in Guanajuato, Mexico is not for the faint of heart. Unlike classical Egyptian mummies, the exhibits of this museum amaze with the variety of faces of death; the distorted facial expressions of some mummies even suggest that people were buried alive.
No one embalmed these mummies, they were formed naturally at a local cemetery due to the soil being too dry. The dead bodies were subjected to rapid and severe dehydration, which preserved them from decomposition.
This museum was formed by chance. In the second half of the 19th century, a law was passed according to which the relatives of those buried in a cemetery had to pay a tax for eternal burial. If the tax was not paid, the remains of the deceased were removed.
The law and forced exhumation were in effect from 1865 to 1958. It is worth noting that not all recovered bodies were mummified; apparently, the conditions in different parts of the cemetery (dryness of the soil, its composition, proximity groundwater etc.) contributed to the preservation of bodies in different ways.
All mummified bodies discovered during exhumation were kept by cemetery workers in a separate building. Already in late XIX centuries, these mummies began to attract the attention of travelers, and they began to charge a fee for viewing them. The official date of foundation of the museum is considered to be 1969, when the mummies were exhibited in special glass cases.
In total, the museum contains more than a hundred mummies, mostly women's mummies, there are also about two dozen children's and several men's. Among the children's mummies, there are individual specimens that are considered the smallest mummies on the planet.
There are a lot of very creepy mummies in the museum, at the sight of which impressionable young ladies almost lose their senses. Of all the mummies, only 59 are on display. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit the museum every year.
ARE THE SOULS OF THE DEAD ALWAYS NEARBY?
In the sacristy of the Italian church of Del Sacro Cuore del Suffraggio in Rome there is a small museum, the exhibits of which testify to the presence of the souls of dead people on earth. This Museum of Departed Souls was founded in 1912 thanks to the church rector.
For a long time The museum kept only one exhibit - a nightcap with traces of the ghost's fingers, smeared with soot. These traces, according to local legend, were left by the ghost of Louise le Senechel. After the death of his wife, her husband began to lead a rather riotous lifestyle and completely forgot about the proper mourning, so she came to him from the other world to remind him of decency.
On the night of May 7, 1873, Louise's ghost pulled the cap off M. le Senechel's head and pinched his nose several times, very painfully...
Over time, others were added to this exhibit. At the moment, the museum has more than a hundred different artifacts, including clothes, linen, books and other objects with fingerprints, soles and other traces left by the souls of the dead. All this is material evidence of the real existence of ghosts.
If you want to visit this museum, remember that it is usually closed. To view the exhibition, you need to contact the local priest. By the way, according to the testimony of tourists who visited the museum, it is useless to take photographs in it - perfume spoils almost all photographs...
NATURAL HORROR "THE TOWER OF MAD"
The Museum of Pathological Anatomy in Vienna (Austria) is located in a 5-story tower building, which in the 18th century was a clinic for violent madmen, hence the second name of the museum - “Tower of Madmen”.
Although mentally ill people have long disappeared from this building, many visitors to the museum, even before seeing its exhibits, already feel a certain oppressive “aura” of its thick walls, as if saturated with negativity and unhealthy emotions.
The exhibits of the creepy museum will not add to your mood. People with faint hearts are immediately advised to refrain from visiting it.
What is so scary that you can see in the “Tower of Madmen”? The exhibition includes preserved heads, corpses with various developmental anomalies and mutations, and babies preserved in alcohol with terrible pathologies.
The organs of patients with sexually transmitted diseases, alcoholics and smokers are displayed here. They say they are very useful to see for people suffering bad habits, and those who are promiscuous in their relationships.
One of the most valuable exhibits of the museum is the head of the assassin of Empress Sisi, preserved in alcohol. Perhaps the only exhibit that does not evoke negative emotions is an antique gynecological chair made of mahogany.
MUMTER MUSEUM OF MEDICAL HISTORY
The Mütter Museum of Medical History in Philadelphia (USA) presents to visitors an extensive collection of medical pathologies and ancient medical equipment. There are no fewer terrible exhibits here than in the Museum of Pathological Anatomy in Vienna, so especially impressionable people should refrain from visiting it.
The Mütter Museum was opened in early 1750 by Benjamin Franklin, at first its extraordinary collection was used only for scientific research and educational purposes. Now anyone can visit this museum.
Among its exhibits, the famous collection of human skulls (48 copies) of the most famous various sizes and forms. One of the most important exhibits of the museum is the body of a woman, which turned into soap due to the unusual conditions of her burial place.
Here you can see famous conjoined twins Chan and Yen Bunkers with a united liver, skeletons of Siamese twins joined at the head, the skeleton of a two-headed child, many preserved internal organs with various pathologies.
One of the main exhibits of the museum, Harry Eastluck, is of great interest to tourists. During his lifetime, this man suffered from fibrodysplasia ossificans, a very rare disease that is characterized by the formation of bone growths at the site of a bruise or wound. Istlak died at the age of over forty, before which he bequeathed his skeleton to the museum.
In addition to the skeleton of this unfortunate man, the museum displays a number of photographs of him during his lifetime. Another exhibit that quite shocks visitors is a fused female fetus in a glass cubic jar.
TORTURED WITH A DEVILIC FANTASY
There are several torture museums in the world, but two of them are considered especially terrible - in The Hague (Netherlands) and in the city of Mdina (Malta). The first of them is also called the “Prisoner's Gate”; the main exhibit in it is an ancient casemate of the 13th century, in which torture actually took place.
Its walls seem to be saturated with unbearable pain and horror; especially sensitive people here often faint during an excursion. The museum displays an impressive arsenal of a wide variety of torture instruments, and the guide's story is filled with detailed details of their use.
The Torture Museum in Mdina is considered unsurpassed in its impact on visitors. It is located in the basement, when you go down into it you immediately come across beheaded people, hanged men, a rack and various instruments of torture. Among the latter are a vice for squeezing the skull, pliers for tearing out nails and other inventions of executors who had a truly diabolical imagination.
It shows scenes of various tortures, the characters of which, made of wax, look very naturalistic. These museums are not recommended for the faint of heart, pregnant women and children.
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This round building, frightening in its name, houses the Museum of Pathological Anatomy. The building is also called the “Tower of Madmen.” Back in the 18th century, there was a hospital for people with clouded minds. The first exhibition halls began operating in 1936, and in 1976 the museum received national status. It should be noted that a visit to this museum can spoil your appetite for more than one day - a walk among preserved human organs and other exhibits on this topic is not for everyone.
Also in the museum’s exhibition there is a very unusual gynecologist’s chair, made of mahogany, various accessories and much more, which may arouse keen interest, except perhaps from a future physician.
Before the Second World War, the museum's collection was larger, but lost part during the bombing.
By the way, the Tower of Madmen ranks first in the TOP 5 scariest places to visit in the world.
Address: Uni Campus Hof 6, Spitalgasse 2, A-1090 Vienna
Telephone: (+43-1) 52177-606
Working hours: on Wednesday from 15-00 to 18-00, on Thursday - from 8-00 to 11-00, the first Monday of the month - from 10-00 to 13-00.
Website: http://www.narrenturm.at/
Ticket price: 2 euros.
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1. Museum of Pathological Anatomy. Austria, Vienna
There are dozens of museums in the world that display exhibits that are not for the faint of heart. Kunstkamera, Mutter Museum of Medical History in Philadelphia and many others. The Vienna Museum of Pathological Anatomy is the most famous among them, a real monument to pathologies, deformities, gene mutations and harsh medieval medicine. The second name of the museum is the Tower of Fools. The fact is that the museum is located in a former mental hospital, in an isolation ward for lunatics. The most seasoned and cynical tourists who have traveled the world in search of the desired dose of adrenaline will certainly agree - this is truly scary.
2. Ossuary. Sedlec, Czech Republic
The plague left a lot of evidence of its merciless activity. Several centuries ago, a large part of Europe turned into one continuous necropolis. At that moment, when the next cemetery was overcrowded, the bones had to be dug out of the ground and improvised warehouses had to be set up. In many provincial European towns, the basements of chapels are still littered with the skulls of victims of the epidemic. The ossuary in the Czech Republic is a special warehouse; in the 18th century, the analysis of the “medieval heritage” was approached with imagination and unconditional cynicism. A well-known woodcarver at that time created an interior design for Prince Schwarzenberg that consisted entirely of bones. The walls made of neatly arranged skulls make the greatest impression, but the Schwarzenberg coat of arms, assembled from bones, will also leave few people indifferent.
3. Paris Catacombs, France
It would seem that the Parisian catacombs are a well-trodden tourist path; no trace of mysticism and mystery should remain. However, even before the start of the excursion, the novels of Victor Hugo with their dungeons and depressing atmosphere will be resurrected in memory. The catacombs run throughout Paris, however, only a small part of them is open for tours. The rest is patrolled day and night by the underground police, not for the sake of protecting the catacombs (there is nothing to steal there except bones), but for the sake of protecting curious tourists. There are legends about ghosts, monsters and blind madmen who have not been seen in the world for several generations. Nonsense, isn't it? Now tell me, why would a civilized country, in this case, spend a lot of money on maintaining a special police service?
4. Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Auschwitz, Poland
On the territory of the former Auschwitz death camp, where more than 4 million people died, a State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. The entrance to the museum is through the famous gate, depicted in hundreds of war films. Further - brick blocks where prisoners were kept. The exhibits, for example, are things that the Nazis took from their victims that are truly shocking. There are no exhibitions in the neighboring Brzezinka camp; the condition of the camp has been left unchanged since the war.
5. Museum of Torture. Mdina, Malta
There are many famous museums of torture - in Prague, The Hague, Amsterdam... However, the most terrible is the museum in the city of Mdina, which has collected a huge collection of guillotines, nail clippers and other instruments of torture. In addition, the use of the inquisitorial arsenal is clearly demonstrated by naturalistic, even too naturalistic wax figures.
6. Winchester House, San Jose, California
Many films have been made about this house, hundreds of stories have been told. It was built by Sarah Winchester, heiress to a weapons company. Because of a terrible prophecy, or for some other reason, she went crazy. The house is the fruit of her crazy imagination. He is huge and terrible healthy person he simply cannot understand the intentions that guided the lady during the forty-year construction period. The house is believed to be full of ghosts and other evil things, however, even if you don’t believe in poltergeists, Sarah Winchester’s madness will certainly make an impression.
7. Castle of Count Dracula. Transylvania, Romania
The medieval castle of the famous vampire stands on the very edge of the abyss. Through narrow passages dark rooms and echoing stone stairs you will pass into the bedroom in which, on a huge four-poster bed, the vampire sucked the blood from his victims. But even if you are not inclined to believe in the story of Dracula, the terrible reality is unlikely to please you. After all, in this castle lived one of the most monstrous people of the Middle Ages, Vlad the Impaler, who impaled hundreds of innocent people. And you say “fairy tales”...
8. GULAG, Russia
During the twenty years of its existence, millions of people passed through the Gulag. The most difficult conditions were established in the camps, basic human rights were not respected, and severe punishments were applied for the slightest violation of the regime. Mortality from hunger, disease and overwork was extremely high. And now on Solovki, under the northern sky, you can see abandoned barracks, adits, punishment cells and warehouses with prisoners’ clothes and shaved hair.
9. Museum of Executions. Fontaine de Vaucluse, Paris
Another museum included in the galaxy of the most terrible museums in the world. Its founder is familiar with the topic firsthand - he himself served as an executioner for more than ten years. The museum contains a collection of execution instruments from all times and peoples, and if at first glance a huge guillotine seems the most terrible to you, I advise you to take a closer look - smaller weapons, completely invisible and harmless at first glance, can turn out to be much more terrible...
10. Death Valley, Tibet
This trail lies away from the famous pilgrimage route around Mount Kailash. The field of the Valley of Death is strewn with bones - yogis come here to die, they come here for insight, purification and gaining secret knowledge. But not everyone returns, and not in the same mental state in which they left: it is believed that in the Valley of Death the soul undergoes a kind of trial, and a sinful or meaningless life ends here.
11. Castle of Horrors. London. England
Everything is done very naturalistically, even the scents are appropriate. Real historical events are depicted, such as the fire of London in 1666 or medieval torture chambers and instruments. Some things are demonstrated to visitors, up to a certain limit, of course.
One of the shows features a 16th century court. Somewhere above sit judges in wigs, the museum attendant takes the “defendants” out of the group of tourists one by one and seats them on the bench. "Name?" - "Dan." "Where?" - "Houston" - "Houston? America? - Guilty! (guilty)."
12. Tower of Madmen, or Museum of Pathological Anatomy. Vein. Austria
In the 18th century, a madhouse was located in a tower on what is now Spitalgasse. Nowadays it is recommended to climb here either for extremely brave people or for complete cynics. An elegant mahogany gynecological chair, dried and preserved organs, dissected skulls and mummified heads of law-abiding citizens, exhibits dedicated to venereal diseases and cases of pathological enlargement of the genitals...
Still, it’s a shame that the sculptural group of Laocoön and his sons, made of human and animal bones, was lost during the bombing.
13. Museum of the Souls of the Departed. Rome. Italy
In the sacristy of the Chiesa del Sacro Cuore church, those who wish can visit a small museum that contains evidence of the presence of the souls of the dead on earth. To enter the museum, you need to ask permission from the local priest. However, this is a pure formality - they will almost certainly open a mysterious door and show you everything. The rector of the church began collecting the collection in 1912.
There are now hundreds of ghost-related exhibits here. There is, for example, a nightcap with sooty fingerprints. These are traces of the touch of the ghost of Louise le Senechel. On May 7, 1873, the deceased appeared under cover of darkness to her peacefully sleeping husband, pinched his nose painfully several times and vindictively pulled off his nightcap. So, according to the widower, who sometimes took liberties, she reminded him that mourning must be observed... But no one has yet been able to develop photographs of the exhibits.
14. "Prisoner's Gate", also known as the "Museum of Torture". Hague. Netherlands
The Amsterdam Torture Museum is much more famous than The Hague. However, the most terrible exhibition is right here, in the political capital of the Netherlands. In the central busy square of The Hague, Bau Tenhof, there is a gloomy ancient casemate (13th century), where criminals from all over the kingdom were taken for torture.
Here, for the attention of visitors, is the work equipment of the executors. If you don’t faint from horror at the first minute - and this happens here - the museum guide will kindly and in great detail tell you exactly how it was used.
15. Museum of Devils. Kaunas. Lithuania
The only museum in the world where the exclamation “A thousand devils!” will be appropriate. About as many devils, devils, devils and little devils are collected here. The museum was created in 1966 on the basis of the personal collection of Professor A. Zmuidzinavicius. By 1991, 1,742 exhibits had already been collected.
Devils made of ceramics, wood, metals, leather, plastic and other, sometimes the most exotic materials were brought to Kaunas from 23 countries. The collection is constantly updated. Kaunas representative office evil spirits today the largest in the world.
16. Elmina Castle. Cape Coast. Ghana
European fortress of the 15th century - one of the centers of the slave trade - a real monument to guilt white man before the population of the black continent. Such buildings on the Ghanaian coast are found approximately every 15 kilometers.
A stuffy casemate, a tiny window under the ceiling through which light streams, shackles, a narrow gap in the wall - the “Gate of No Return”, exit to loading. The most terrible sight is the stone well in which people waited for months to leave.
Museum of Pathological Anatomy, Tower of Fools - Pathologisch-anatomische Sammlung Im Narrenturm. A round five-story building of the 18th century, it was one of oldest in the continental Europe mental hospitals. Narrenturm (Tower of Fools or House of Fools or Tower of Madmen; "narr" - crazy, "turm" - tower) is part of the architectural complex University of Vienna(former central hospital Vienna), and it contains pathological-anatomical museum. 50,000 objects: preserved bodies and organs, wax models. Some of these facilities were used to train future doctors. Besides teaching aids can be seen skull of a participant in the first circumnavigation of the Austrian fleet in 1858, whose head was removed from the belly of the shark that devoured him. The most valuable exhibit here is considered preserved head of the assassin of Empress Sisi, sculpture of Laocoon with sons, completed from human and animal bones. Every year Narrenturm Visited by about 25,000 people.
In 1784, by order of Emperor Joseph II, the local nursing home was rebuilt into the largest (2000 beds) hospital in Europe at that time - Altes Allgemeines Krankenhaus. It included the general hospital itself, a maternity ward and a psychiatric hospital. The psychiatric department became a private project of the emperor, financed separately from his personal funds. Its architect was Isidore Canevale.
Joseph II was fond of alchemy and was a member of the Masonic lodge, which is reflected in the architecture of the tower. Because of its cylindrical shape, it is popularly nicknamed Gugelhupf (like “round pie”); Soon all psychiatric institutions began to be called this unofficially. The tower has a circumference of 66 Vienna fathoms. On each floor there are 28 rooms with narrow windows, overlooking the courtyard or street, and on the roof there is a wooden octagon, which the emperor visited several times a week. In the Arabic tradition, 66 is the number of God, and in the Kabbalistic tradition, the number 28 describes God healing the sick, and the month also lasts 28 days lunar calendar. In total, the hospital had 139 single rooms. Each area was about 13 square meters and opened onto a through central corridor running along the entire floor. Hospital employees and doctors walked along the corridor. The rooms were arranged so that even with a small number of staff, all patients could be easily monitored. The patients were dominated by soldiers, many of whom were not “fixed,” but sat or even ran along the corridor. Under Joseph II, there were no doors or bars in the chambers. Some violent ones, however, lay in their chambers, chained to the walls. In later times, straitjackets and bed straps were used. Doors appeared. After the death of the emperor, a wall was built around the tower to protect the sick from onlookers who liked to look at her patients.
Joseph II believed that water worsens the condition of the mentally ill, so the building was not connected to the then existing water supply in Vienna. There was a lightning rod on the tower - two of its fastenings have been preserved. courtyard. Joseph II was familiar with the work and experiments on creating devices for lightning removal. At the time of its creation, the lightning rod of the Tower of Fools was one of the first in the world. It is unclear whether it was also used to treat the sick (at that time something was already known about the ability of electricity to change the state of the mentally ill).
In 1852, a new psychiatric hospital was opened in Brünlfeld and only incurable patients were taken to the Tower of Fools until 1866, when the institution was closed. For a long time, the tower housed archives or stood completely empty; in 1920, it was used as a dormitory for nurses working at the Vienna Central Hospital. For some time, the tower also served as a workshop and resting place for doctors.
The Pathoanatomical Museum there was founded in 1971 (although the collection of the Pathoanatomical Museum began to be created back in 1796 by order of Franz II, Franz II). You will see: dissected skulls, brains preserved in formaldehyde, mummified bodies, embryos with congenital mutations, individual internal organs and body parts, including those changed as a result of mutations (something like the Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg). A separate part of the exhibition introduces the consequences of sexually transmitted diseases and the use of chemical weapons in the First World War. Part of the exhibition of the Museum of Electropathology (meaning the results of the effects of current on the human body), which was created by Stefan Jellinek in 1936, has also been moved here. Since 1974, this museum no longer has just a university, but a federal status; On January 1, 2012, the Pathological Museum became part of Natural History Museum, although the building itself is owned by the University of Vienna.
The Pathological Museum is located on the university campus and is open only three days a week: Wednesday from 10:00 to 18:00 and Thursday and Saturday from 10:00 to 13:00. Ticket price is 4 Euros (persons under 19 years of age are free), with a tour - 6 Euros per person, excursion tours start at 13:00 and 14:00. Prices and opening hours are for 2016, check on the website. Photo and video shooting is prohibited!
You can get there on foot from the Alser Strasse (line U6) or Schottentor metro stations, a little more than a kilometer there.
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