Introducing the world's weirdest museums...

By Sarah Gordon

Last updated at 12:53 PM on 31st March 2010

If you've ticked off the Tates, lost hours in the Louvre and seen enough fossils to last you a lifetime in the world's natural history museums, then you're probably looking for something a bit more exciting from your next museum visit.

Well, rest assured, however offbeat your preferred subject matter might be, the chances are there's probably a museum dedicated to it. And often you don't have to go out of your way to explore these oddities. In fact, many examples of the bizarre can be found at popular holiday spots and city break destinations.

So, whether it's hair - the world's largest collection resides in Turkey, dead cockroaches dressed up to look like celebrities (to be found in Texas) or dog collars that float your fascination boat, just step this way...

Hot stuff: The ketchup-red Currywurst Museum in Berlin treats visitors to the sights, sounds and smells of that much-loved German take on the banger

Currywurst Museum, Berlin

The Germans certainly do love their sausage. And what better way to honour the national banger than by putting it in a museum, in particular, the currywurst.

For 11 euros, visitors to Berlin can learn all about the culinary delight that is sausage - often sliced - in a sauce of tomato, curry powder, spices and Worcester sauce. The ketchup-red museum treats visitors to the sensory experience of currywurst from the sound of sausages sizzling to the smell of exotic spices.

There is even the chance to get behind a mocked-up sausage stand so you can actually imagine what it's like to serve up this much-loved snack.

The importance of the country's saucy sausage is proven both by the museum's location right next to the famous Cold War monument that is Checkpoint Charlie, and the capital's ongoing sausage war with Hamburg about which city really can claim to have invented it.

More info: www.currywurstmuseum.de

Stomach churning: An exhibit from The Parasite Museum showing a dolphin stomach infected by a parasite

Parasite Museum, Tokyo

When was the last time you took a moment to think about the mighty parasites of the world? Not too recently? Well, a visit to Tokyo's Parasite Museum can change all that. 

A celebration of the world's greatest scroungers, the museum boasts 300 varieties of parasites with the piece de resistance being a 30-foot tapeworm pulled out of an unsuspecting woman who had reportedly picked it up eating sushi - that's all you need to take a vow of starvation.

As if that's not enough, the museum, which was set up by four scientists specialising in parasites and is also a research facility, has pictures alongside some creatures showing the adverse affect they have on their hosts.

The bonus is, this museum is free, which means more money to spend on souvenir t-shirts with pictures of parasites on, or even rulers and keyrings with dead specimens trapped inside. Lovely.

More info: www.kiseichu.org/english

What a way to go: Barcelona's Museum of Funeral Carriages has become an unlikely hit with visitors

Museum of Funeral Carriages, Barcelona

There is a lot of beauty in Barcelona, from Gaudi architecture to the surrounding coastline, so you might question why anyone would want to forsake a few hours under the Spanish sun in favour of going underground to a dusty museum full of funeral carriages.

There's no accounting for taste though and this macabre museum has become an unlikely hit with visitors.

Perhaps it has something to do with the sense of adventure in finding it. Visitors have to report to the city's Municipal Funeral Services from where they will be guided to the basement by a security guard and the exhibition unlocked.

Or maybe it's the eerie silence that hangs heavy as you make your way around the exhibit's ornate carriages, which date from as far back as the 18th century and are manned by dummies (or are they?) in period costume.

Either way, the free attraction gives an insight into the Catalan capital's darker side. It will almost be a shame when the museum moves to the cemetery at Montjuic - although this doesn't look like it's happening any time soon.

More info: Museu de Carrosses Fúnebres, Carrer Sancho de Avila 2, 00 34 93 484 17 00

Barking mad? The Dog Collar Museum in Leeds claims to display a 'unique collection of historic and fascinating dog collars'

Dog Collar Museum, Leeds Castle, Kent

Leeds Castle has a lot to offer visitors, 500 acres of parkland, sumptuous interiors, Henry VIII memorabilia and...a dog collar museum.

Not the most obvious choice of crowd-puller for the castle, the exhibition claims to display a 'unique collection of historic and fascinating dog collars'. 

The assortment of canine cuffs spans five centuries and includes everything from strong collars designed to keep control of hunting dogs, to the sparkly fashion items 21st-century collars have become.

The first articles were donated by Gertrude Hunt in memory of her husband, John Hunt, a distinguished medievalist. But since then the trust has built on its collection and now boasts more than 100 collars and related items.

More info: www.leeds-castle.com

Members club: Iceland's Phallus Museum celebrates the study of the penis

Phallus Museum, Iceland

The land of fire and ice announces its popular attraction by saying it is 'probably the only museum in the world to contain a collection of phallic specimens belonging to all the various types of mammal found in a single country.'

And the museum is totally serious. Pass under the penis-shaped sign (of course) and you can enter the world of phallology - the study of the penis, and of its place in history, art, and society.

The exhibition contains a collection of over one hundred penises and penile parts belonging to almost all the land and sea mammals that can be found in Iceland.

Ranging from displays of blue whale members to those from mice and shrews, the museum also has a section on folklore with examples it claims are from elves, trolls and sea monsters.

If you are thinking that the museum is one member short, you would be right. But a 92-year-old volunteer has given the museum a legally-certified gift token for a future specimen belonging to homosapiens.

More info: www.ismennt.is/not/phallus/ens.htm

Going underground: Discover the less glamorous side of the French capital in the Paris Sewers Museum

Paris Sewers Museum, Paris

Trust the French to make even city sewers chic. Centuries of art at the Louvre is so passe. Now fashionable tourists in the capital of romance flock to the city's underworld for their kicks.

The ever-changing exhibits at Boston's Museum of Bad Art feature in themed areas such as 'blue people', 'poor traits' and 'unlikely landscapes, seascapes and still lifes'

The network of tunnels made famous by Victor Hugo's Les Miserables are brought to life under the Quai D'Orsay on the Left Bank where the museum introduces visitors to the world of sewage disposal from 13th-century drainage systems to the first closed sewers introduced in Napoleon's time.

Guides talk through the history of keeping Paris clean and the tunnels' past as a tourist attraction, when people could sail through the tunnels or be pulled along the pungent expanses in carriages.

There is no such transport now, but a walking tour of the vaulted subterranean channels is offered for any visitors who can cope with the stench. The tunnels, which follow the Paris roads, have blue and white street signs and each building's outflow is identified by the house number.

More info: Quai d'Orsay, 00 33 1 47 05 10 29

The Museum of Bad Art, Boston

In recent years Boston has become a popular shopping destination for long weekenders flying over from the UK. But even the most dedicated follower of fashion needs a break from the boutiques sometimes.

Enter The Museum of Bad Art, the world's only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms.

The ever-changing exhibits (there is no shortage of terrible art, it seems) feature in themed areas such as 'blue people', 'poor traits' and 'unlikely landscapes, seascapes and still lifes'.

Clashing colours, out of proportion figures and a general lack of talent will have even the most weary of visitors chuckling as they wander the halls.

It is all summed up in the museum's statement that it displays: 'the work of talented artists that have gone awry to works of exuberant, although crude, execution by artists barely in control of the brush. What they all have in common is a special quality that sets them apart in one way or another from the merely incompetent.'

More info: www.museumofbadart.org

The Museum of Witchcraft in Cornwall features everything from devil worship to satanism

Museum of Witchcraft, Cornwall

If you thought Cornwall was the ideal spot for innocent beach holidays and country pursuits, then the world's largest collection of witchcraft-related artefacts will certainly change your mind.

One of the most popular museums in the South West, the collection has been going for forty years and visitors in search of some hocus pocus are still flocking.

The unusual exhibition was set up by Cecil Williamson, a man who had always dabbled in the occult and was even employed as an undercover agent by MI6 to collect information on the occult interests of leading Nazi military personnel.

With categories including everything from devil worship and satanism to the persecution of witches it's certainly a complete collection of all things dark.

Visitors can see old-fashioned dipping chairs, used to 'prove' whether a woman was a witch and ritual poppets - or dolls - which were supposedly used to inflict harm on others.

There is even a library of over 3000 books on witchcraft and the occult in case you want to get involved yourself...

More info: www.museumofwitchcraft.com

Museum of the Holy Souls in Purgatory, Rome

OK, it doesn't exactly sound inviting. Who wants to spend any more time in Purgatory than they absolutely have to?

Rome's Museum of the Holy Souls in Purgatory features bibles with scorched handprints that are hailed as signs from souls trapped in fiery Purgatory

Located in an eerie room off the Chiesa del Sacro Cuore del Suffragio church on the banks of the Tiber in Rome, the museum purports to show traces of apparitions who reside in Purgatory - the flaming half-way house where people pay for their sins before being allowed access to heaven.

Scorched handprints adorning bibles, tables and clothing are hailed as signs from souls trapped in fiery Purgatory trying to contact their loved ones to pray for them and reduce the amount of time they have to spend outside of heaven. 

The collection was started by a priest who saw a figure in the midst of a fire that destroyed the altar in the church. He thought it must be a soul from Purgatory and started to collect information on the appearances of these pained souls from around the world.

More info: Chiesa del Sacro Cuore del Suffragio, Lungotevere Prati 12, Rome

Torture Museum, Amsterdam

Tulips and torture anyone? The Dutch capital is a multi-layered destination where pretty canals, world-beating art museums and historic sites sit alongside cannabis cafes and the infamous Red Light District.

Those looking for a side-serving of horror with their city break might find the Torture Museum holds the key.

With its darkened rooms and uncomfortable ambiance, the exhibit hopes to 'document the history of human cruelty' - just what you need on your holidays.

Gruesome: Amsterdam's Torture Museum documents the history of human cruelty

Gruesome displays including a rusty guillotine, stretching tables, screws to crush your fingers, your head and any other body part and a chair of nails - just some of the instruments that will leave you grateful you live in 21st century Europe.

Anyone perplexed by what some instruments were used for will be enlightened by detailed explanations and old paintings showing how they were used to inflict maximum pain - the picture of how an old saw was used will have male visitors crossing their legs.

Fascinating and with a serious message, the museum points out to departing tourists that the USA still employs executioners and the death penalty still exists in countries around the world, begging the question, how much have times really changed?

More info: www.torturemuseum.com

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