Great beers, Bavarian comfort food and warm weather: Football fans in town for the 2024 European Championship will find it hard to escape Munich’s world-famous beer gardens this summer.
But just as Germany is heating up, Munich is opening its newest and perhaps most Instagram-friendly tourist attraction: a museum of optical illusions.
With impossibly real-looking spaces that play tricks in height and distance, mirrors that distort reality and a kaleidoscope that conveys the feeling of infinity, the Wow Museum – Room for Illusions in Munich opens on Saturday, June 29.
Centrally located at the city’s landmark medieval gateway, Isartor, the museum covers approximately 500 square meters, divided into 15 experience rooms with optical illusions.
“Everyone can – and indeed should – participate,” says museum director Sophie-Charlotte Bombeck, pointing out how many of the illusions are designed for participation.
Based on a concept from a Zurich original, but not a copy, the Munich Wow Museum is one of a growing number of social media-friendly museums dedicated to optical illusions in cities around the world.
The museum uses a so-called edutainment approach and finds a playful way to teach visitors how the brain tricks the eye.
“It’s an experience for young and old,” says the owner of both museums, Vanessa Kammermann, pointing out how much places like this can teach us about our understanding of the concept of truth.
“In the coronavirus era, people discussed a lot about right and wrong,” the founder said. However, with optical illusions there is no right or wrong. “Everyone sees things differently and perceives illusions differently.”
The opening comes after Munich hosted fans from Germany, Scotland, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, Ukraine and Denmark for European Championship matches, and as Dutch and Romanian fans head to the city for a round of 16 match before hosting a semi-competition. last.
Anyone who enjoys the Museum of Illusion should probably consider the Deutsches Museum, a world-famous museum of science and technology, located on an island in the Isar River. 20,000 square meters of exhibition space await you there, so plan some more time to take it all in.
