Mutation Museum. Mutants from the Vrolik Museum (photo)

The craving of humanoids for beauty is clear to everyone without explanation. The craving for the ugly in most societies and their cultures has to be argued. I remember the Soviet, excuse me, times. During the summer, schoolchildren were asked to read sagas about Major Deev or the merchant Kalashnikov, but boys and girls had no interest in such reading. In the absence of porn magazines and any albums with reproductions of Boris Vallejo, textbooks on forensic medicine were especially popular among the commoners of the young tribe. I saw a terrible thing distorted in letterpress, read a couple of lines about maceration and fat wax - I provided myself with thoroughbred nightmares for a couple of months.

Even the ancient pre-Internet Soviet times were marked by two amazing “necrophilic” queues in the two capitals of Mother: the queue glorified by Letov and an almost massacre stampede for the right to an entrance ticket to the St. Petersburg Kunstkamera - to gaze at anencephals in jars and a six-legged calf.

After Chernobyl with its eight-armed apples and horse-stealing catfish, everyone was given everything. Along with the dollar, visual information about the forbidden came into the lives of the curious. Horror films, TV reports in the style of “Top Secret” and all that. At the same time, many secondary cabinets of curiosities fell into disrepair. And the main queue has thinned out. Horror entered everyday life, like an adrenaline needle into the vein of a dying man. At the same time, foreign countries have become closer. The lovers met their finest hour.

Jokes about pathologists and sausage exist in all cultures. Museums with biological horrors, opened abroad, are maintained in perfect condition and attract thousands of tourists. They are possessed by the same curiosity that brought their great-great-grandfathers to paid fair performances and. And neither horror films, nor porn, nor trash can satisfy this curiosity.

In short, here’s a short tour of the most “trash” cabinets of curiosities in the Western and Eastern worlds. If you're visiting, don't disdain anyone who's interested.

1. Fun museum Museum Vrolik (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Among desperate people who are carried away by brain waves to the Netherlands, there is such a fun thing - when in Amsterdam, blow and go to the museum of freaks “Museum Vrolik”.

The word frolik can be translated from the English-Dutch surzhik as “perky” or “playful”. In fact, the museum of curiosities owes its name to its founders - father and son Gerardus and Willem Frolik, who lived 200 years ago. Currently, the exhibition of this cabinet of curiosities is located at the University of Amsterdam. The Frolikov Museum is considered the richest collection of human freaks in the world. This is about 10 thousand exhibits - infant Cyclops, Siamese twins and the like. As well as animal skeletons, stuffed animals of incredible mutants from the world of fauna, many of which are very old. The museum is regularly updated.

The so-called Hovius cabinet is considered an attraction of the museum. This is a collection of skulls and bones with various defects collected in the 18th century, which owes its existence to Dr. Jacob Hovius, who practiced in Amsterdam.

The mentioned tapeworm, almost 9 meters long, was extracted from the intestines of a Japanese man who had an unsuccessful dinner with trout. Next to the exhibit is a rope the length of a worm, which visitors can play with to get an idea of the extent of the pathology.

In total, Meguro contains 45 thousand nasty things, models and photographs.

3. Cesare Lombroso Museum of Criminal Anthropology (Turin, Italy)

Criminologist Cesare Lombroso came up with the theory of the born criminal. He believed that the tendency to commit crimes lies in human biology. Dr. Lombroso taught to identify swindlers and murderers by the structural features of the skull and other appearance features. Thus, the patient’s low sloping forehead, wide jaws, high cheekbones, patchy facial hair, and long arms could indicate criminal tendencies. While working on his theories, Lombroso collected a large collection of anatomical preparations and criminological artifacts. The museum was opened to the public in 1884 and then toured Italy. Today the collection of Cesare Lombroso is exhibited in the Turin Museum.

The collection of the Museum of Criminal Anthropology is crowned by the head of Cesare Lombroso himself.

4. Anatomical Museum of Sirirai Hospital (Bangkok, Thailand)

The most popular among visitors to the museum at Siriraj Hospital is the mummy of Thailand's first serial killer, the cannibal Si Wei Sai Urng, who during his lifetime, in the 1950s, hunted children.

5. Museum of Human Disease (Sydney, Australia)

This museum was founded in the mid-1960s by Professor Donald Wilhelm for students and doctors. The remaining categories of the population were allowed entry only in 2009. The museum contains approximately 2,700 samples of diseased human tissue - from skin flaps to hearts and lungs.

All unpleasant exhibits float in formaldehyde. Each of them is accompanied by a “pedigree” - a history of the disease that affected one or another organ. Some specimens of pathologies are not found anywhere else in preserved form, which Australian doctors are very pleased with.

Anatomical museums are always of great interest to tourists. When history or art museums do not arouse enough interest, then before your upcoming vacation you should choose an exhibition that will truly touch your heartstrings. (11 photos)

The Human Body Exhibition.
The Human Body Exhibition, or exhibition of the human body, was first exhibited in Florida in 2005 and has since been held in many cities around the world. Embalmed human bodies are used as exhibits at the exhibition, dissected in such a way as to show, on the one hand, the complexity of the structure of the human body, and on the other hand, to show its beauty and harmony. Judge for yourself how beautiful it looks.

It should be noted that the people whose bodies are displayed as exhibits, during their lifetime, gave written consent to the use of their bodies after death as drugs. Anyone who liked the exhibition can make a posthumous will on the spot and add to the exhibition after death.

Museum Vrolik.
The playful museum Museum Vrolik (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) was founded by father and son Vrolik. Translated from English-Dutch, the word “vrolik” means “perky”, which is why the museum received such a strange name. Gerardas Vrolik and William Vrolik were professors of medicine and studied mutations in humans. They collected a huge collection of mutations, which over time turned into a museum.

Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg.
The Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg was founded in 1714 by order of Peter 1. The Kunstkamera contains more than a million exhibits. If previously the exhibits were used for scientific purposes, now it is exclusively a museum of human mutations and deformities, where visitors can see with their own eyes the incredible metamorphoses that nature creates with human flesh.

Museum of the Human Body in the Netherlands.
The museum took twelve years to create. It took twenty-seven million dollars to create the collection. The building is located inside a model of a giant man, thanks to which it is possible to walk freely inside and get acquainted with the structure and functioning of the organs and systems of the human body.

Museum employees are required to have a medical education and clearly answer all kinds of questions from visitors. If you want to improve your knowledge of human anatomy, then the Museum of the Human Body in the Netherlands is the ideal place for this.

Museum Vrolik

The playful museum Museum Vrolik (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) was founded by father and son Vrolik. Translated from English-Dutch, the word “vrolik” means “perky”, which is why the museum received such a strange name. Gerardas Vrolik and William Vrolik were professors of medicine and studied mutations in humans. They collected a huge collection of mutations, which over time turned into a museum. The exhibits include Siamese twins, Cyclops children, and two-headed monsters. Mutant freaks of various stripes make a lasting impression on visitors.

The Human Body Exhibition

The Human Body Exhibition, or exhibition of the human body, was first exhibited in Florida in 2005 and has since been held in many cities around the world. The geography of the exhibition is more than impressive: Winnipeg, Dublin, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Atlanta, Vienna, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Montreal, Niagara Falls (Ontario), Bogota, Cordoba, Barcelona, Cincinnati, Santiago de Chile, Sao Paulo , Prague, Bratislava, Sofia, Zagreb, Budapest, Belgrade, Lisbon, Atlantic City, San Diego, Las Vegas, New York, San Antonio, Washington, Omaha, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Sacramento, Tucson, Cleveland , Seattle, Detroit, Riga, Warsaw, Puerto Rico, Ljubljana, and Boise, Haifa, as well as Houston, Tegucigalpa, San Salvador (El Salvador), Bucharest, London. Embalmed human bodies are used as exhibits at the exhibition, dissected in such a way as to show, on the one hand, the complexity of the structure of the human body, and on the other hand, to show its beauty and harmony. Judge for yourself how beautiful it looks. It should be noted that the people whose bodies are displayed as exhibits, during their lifetime, gave written consent to the use of their bodies after death as drugs. Anyone who liked the exhibition can make a posthumous will on the spot and add to the exhibition after death.

Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg

The Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg was founded in 1714 by order of Peter 1. The Kunstkamera contains more than a million exhibits. If previously the exhibits were used for scientific purposes, now it is exclusively a museum of human mutations and deformities, where visitors can see with their own eyes the incredible metamorphoses that nature creates with human flesh. It is worth saying that in addition to the so-called “exhibition of freaks”, this museum is famous for its numerous exhibits that tell the historical past of many peoples of the world.

Museum of the Human Body in the Netherlands

The museum took twelve years to create. It took twenty-seven million dollars to create the collection. The building is located inside a model of a giant man, thanks to which it is possible to walk freely inside and get acquainted with the structure and functioning of the organs and systems of the human body. Museum employees are required to have a medical education and clearly answer all kinds of questions from visitors. If you want to improve your knowledge of human anatomy, then the Museum of the Human Body in the Netherlands is the ideal place for this.

Plastinarium

The Plastinarium Museum (Guben, Germany) opened in a small town on the border with Poland. The museum was organized by Gunther von Hagens, nicknamed "Doctor Death". He uses purchased human corpses as exhibits; among the exhibits there are also corpses of executed prisoners. Before becoming exhibits, the bodies are processed in a special way, as a result of which fat and water are removed from them, and their place is replaced by a substance with a structure reminiscent of plastic. In the museum you can find various sculptural compositions from dead bodies. So you can see a sculptural composition where corpses play cards or ride a horse. A visit to the museum gives rise to twofold feelings: many museum visitors cannot stand the sight they see and lose consciousness, some admire what they see and consider the doctor a genius.

Imagine that instead of a nose a pig's snout grew or a third leg appeared? What to do? Plastic surgery? Surgeon's scalpel? What if modern technologies are not available? Run away, hide?

In the Kunstkamera Museum in Moscow you can see wax figures of mutant people. Extra limbs, heads, eyes - nature has endowed them with something special. But there was no joy from such a gift, and for some it turned out to be fatal. All the stories told here are true. These people actually lived in the past. What was their fate?

Welcome to the Kunstkamera at the All-Russian Exhibition Center.

Three-legged

There were two three-legged people who lived at the same time. They should have become friends and helped each other, but fate decided that one of them actually turned the life of the other into ruins.

Georg Lippert was born in Germany in 1844 and later moved to the United States. His third leg was fully formed and even had extra toes, bringing the total number of toes to sixteen. However, it was inoperable. According to Georg, it was once able to function like an ordinary limb, but due to a severe fracture it became unusable.

At the beginning of his career in America, Georg Lippert performed in Barnum's circus and received the title of “The Only Man with Three Legs on Earth,” which he was very proud of. It was here that the unfortunate Gerg was disappointed - he was not the only one. In 1898, a 9-year-old boy, Francesco Lentini, arrived from Italy, who also had three legs, and the title no longer made any sense.

From then on, the career of the first triple went downhill. Why did it happen? Perhaps it was because Francesco from Italy was simply luckier - his third leg was quite working and he even played football with it. So it’s not surprising that his brother in misfortune, the former unique one, quickly turned out to be useless and penniless - the public switched to a new idol.

Or maybe it's Georg's bad character. This is understandable, it is difficult to be white and fluffy when people around can be very cruel, mocking those who are not like everyone else. But his three-legged colleague Francesco managed to overcome his inner mood. At first, he also suffered greatly and was embarrassed by his ugliness. But, having ended up as a child in an orphanage, when his parents abandoned him, Francesco saw that many of the children there were missing limbs. And Francesco rightly decided that more is better than less. And he stopped worrying about his ugliness, and decided to use what nature gave him to his advantage. He often liked to make fun of himself.

As a result, the three-legged, cheerful Italian became a successful football player, performed in famous world circuses, got married, and had four children who were born absolutely normal. But the gloomy Georg Lippert died forgotten by everyone in poverty from tuberculosis. After the death of the three-legged unique creature, an autopsy revealed an amazing fact - he not only had three legs, but also two hearts. Moreover, one of them stopped a few weeks before his death. The doctors rendered a verdict - if not for tuberculosis, Georg could have lived for a very long time, even with only one heart.

Mule woman

Grace McDaniels was born in 1888 and likely suffered from Sturge-Weber syndrome. it represents a genetic predisposition to birthmarks - in Grace's case, her huge, dark brown birthmark began to thicken and distort her face. This process was degenerative in nature and Grace's condition worsened every year, shortly before her death, a fold of skin on her face hung more than 4 inches below her chin, due to the impending weight, Grace's speech became difficult over time.

Grace won the ugliest women competition in 1935 and began participating in the show. She was very embarrassed by this title and tried in every possible way to hide her face - first under makeup, then, when the disease began to progress, under a veil. She got the show to stop calling her "the ugliest woman" and instead bill her as "the mule woman." According to eyewitnesses, Grace was very shy and kind.

The lighting in the museum is, of course, eerie. If you take pictures without flash, you get something like this.

When Grace became pregnant, it became a sensation that was quickly spread by newspapermen. A fairy tale story about crazy love was invented. But the truth turned out to be prosaic. The child's father was a drunk stagehand. Grace was very happy that her son Elmer did not pass on her disease, and he was born completely normal. But the joy was premature. He had no external deformity, but apparently he inherited from his father a passion for alcohol, drugs and gambling. The mule woman made a lot of money from shows that Elmer stole and skipped. They died around the same time. She is from old age, he is from cirrhosis of the liver. Which one was truly ugly?

Hairy man

Fedor Mannov was born somewhere in Siberia in the 19th century. There is not much information about him. Maybe because he didn't participate in any shows. Such a simple Russian Siberian man. It is only known that Fyodor Mannov’s entire body was covered with thick dark hair, like wool, except for the palms and feet. Worked at a postal yard in Siberia. in severe frosts he walked in only a shirt.

Pig Woman

There are many legends about women who had a pig's snout. But the only confirmed anomaly is a woman whose name has not survived to this day. She was born in Iceland in 1794 as an absolutely normal child. At the age of 14, the upper lip began to fuse with the bridge of the nose, and the pig's nose was formed by the age of 25. She was the daughter of a priest, very pious, and accepted her ugliness quite calmly and humbly. The pig woman got married and gave birth to two children. She lived to be 94 years old.

The face of this woman, whose name could not be ascertained, was disfigured by an unknown disease. According to eyewitnesses, she was so ugly and scary that she did not appear in public without a black cloak with a hood, which is why she received the nickname “Black Madonna.”

The Black Madonna was imprisoned in a dungeon, where she gave birth to a healthy child. The only connection with the outside world was through a small basement window, where she was given everything she needed for life. Residents also threw notes to her with requests there; it was believed that she could make wishes come true.

Two-Faced Janus

Edward Mordacke was born in the 19th century in Germany and became a famous musician. On the back of his head he had the semblance of a second face. The young man carefully hid his deformity until he was 20 years old and wore special wigs. Edward studied music, but the craft did not bring much success. This is where the physical disability comes in handy. The musician decided to demonstrate it during his performances, and his career immediately took off. Many people wanted to look at a man with two faces. And people no longer cared that he was strumming the violin there. Edward Mordacke lived to the age of 55 and made good money.

Dancing Twins

Coloredo was born in France in the 14th century. In fact, his condition was a form of conjoined twins. Only in this case, the second body grew from the chest of the first. From the outside it seemed that two people were dancing. The second body did not manifest itself in any way - it could not speak, it did not require food. Coloredo was a musketeer for Louis XIII. But, of course, there was no question of any military service; he simply wore a musketeer’s cloak and amused the courtiers. In fact, it was a musketeer - a jester. Lived for 40 years.

Two-headed shooter

It is known that he was born in Turkey. Two heads are also a type of Siamese twins. This man was captured by the troops of Emperor Leopold I during the war with Turkey. Perhaps, thanks to the four eyes on his two heads, he was a very accurate archer. Each of his heads could speak separately and during the interrogation they whispered. For a long time, there was confusion in the documents of that interrogation, since it was not clear how many people they interrogated.

Bug-eyed dragonfly man

Lived in the 19th century in Argentina. The unusual structure of the skull is small eye sockets, as a result of which the eyeballs do not fit in the sockets. The dragonfly man had excellent vision with a visual angle of 200 degrees. To sleep, I had to cover my eyes with black material.

Man - Cyclops (one-eyed man)

The most famous African of the late 19th century. The only eye that saw everything well. He had a good sense of humor and was not prone to depression, unlike most people with anomalies. He worked as a waiter in one of the restaurants in California, the guests adored him.

Three-Eyed

Three-eyed Englishman Bill Dax was a famous swindler. He misled people with the belief that his third eye saw the future. At the age of 21, he escaped from police persecution in America and continued to practice his usual craft there. At the age of 33, he committed suicide - he shot his third eye with a pistol.

Four-Eyed

In 1854, a certain Johnny Stoker from Cleveland had two pairs of brown eyes located on top of each other. According to contemporaries, “he could close any eye separately from the others, he could rotate each eye separately, which was the most repulsive sight.”

Johnny not only did not have a complex about his face, but was even glad about it. Using his ability to roll and roll his eyes, he loved to scare people. At the same time, he sang obscene songs in an unpleasant raspy voice.

In the company of a one-eyed man:

Who else is worried about acne or a lack of graceful nose? Running to the reception at the Cabinet of Curiosities.

And a few more photos from the museum at the All-Russian Exhibition Center.

Museum Kunstkamera in Moscow is located on the territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center (VDNKh metro station) in pavilion number 2 (you can navigate by large signs - live sharks and a butterfly exhibition - this is also there).

Last year we went to St. Petersburg, visited the famous Cabinet of Curiosities of Peter I, looked at the freaks preserved in alcohol, although in fact only one of several halls of the museum is reserved for them. The rest talk about the culture of different peoples of the world...

Recently I accidentally found out that a cabinet of curiosities had also opened in Moscow. Located at the All-Russian Exhibition Center in pavilion No. 2. The loud name actually implies a small hall where for 300 rubles. (ticket price) you will be able to look at 3D photographs of freaks preserved in alcohol, apparently taken in the St. Petersburg Kunstkamera, as well as wax figures of people with various physical disabilities.

Let's move on to what you can see there. Hand on heart, I can say that some moments were interesting, but the exhibition is very small, you can go around everything and read all the descriptions in 10 minutes, so there is not much interesting there. Perhaps, in order to keep visitors, they also play a video about smoking, which tells not only about its harm to health, but also about what is actually in the cigarettes sold, and how manufacturing companies earn their millions from their sales. But these videos can probably change, and next time they will show something different.

Execution machine

Prison on the island of Santo Stefano. Here, among the prisoners during the years of the fascist regime, were the future President of Italy Alessandro Pertini, the writer Giorgio Amendola, the journalist Lelio Basso, the politician Altiero Spinelli, and the communist Umberto Terracini. It’s not entirely clear what the Kunstkamera has to do with it.

Three-legged man - Georg Lippert. His third leg was fully formed, but still inoperative. According to Lippert himself, it was once able to act like an ordinary limb, but due to a fracture it became unusable. Lippert performed in the circus, where he received the title “The Only Man with Three Legs on Earth.” But in 1898 Francesco Lentini arrived from Italy and the title was lost. Francesco had a fully functional third leg, and he could even play football with it.

The hairy man is Fyodor Makhnov. His entire body was covered with thick hair, except for his palms and feet. Worked at a postal yard in Siberia. In severe frosts he walked in only a shirt. This is how it can be seen under the lighting created in the cabinet of curiosities.

And this is his real appearance.

Pig woman. This is the only such anomaly recorded. She was born as an ordinary child. At the age of 14, the upper lip began to fuse with the bridge of the nose. By the age of 25, the pig's snout has formed. She was the daughter of a priest, very pious. She lived 94 years, was married and gave birth to two children.

Two-faced Janus. 19th century. German musician. On the back of his head he had the semblance of a second face. He hid it carefully until he was 20 years old. I had no success in music and decided to use this shortcoming of mine. After that, his career took off; many wanted to see a musician with two faces. It doesn't even matter how he played.

Two-headed hunter. This man was captured by the troops of Emperor Leopold I during the war with Turkey. He was a very accurate archer. Each of his heads could speak separately and during the interrogation they whispered. For a long time there was confusion in the documents of that interrogation, because... it was unclear how many people they questioned.

A type of Siamese twin, the second body grew from the chest of the first. He was a musketeer for Louis XIII. But in fact, he was a musketeer jester. There was no question of any military service. He wore a musketeer's cloak and amused the courtiers.

Four-eyed. In 1854, a certain Johnny Stoker from Cleveland had two pairs of brown eyes located on top of each other. According to contemporaries, “he could close any eye separately from the others, he could rotate each eye separately, which was the most repulsive sight.” Johnny not only did not have a complex about his face, but was even glad about it. Using his ability to roll and roll his eyes, he loved to scare people. At the same time, he sang obscene songs in an unpleasant raspy voice.

A few more photos from the Kunstkamera at the All-Russian Exhibition Center: