Top 10 Greatest Museums

We have listed some of the worlds greatest museums. These museums provide a better understanding of world history and appreciation of arts from ancient time to modern period.

1. The Vatican Museums (Italy)

The Vatican Museums originated as a group of sculptures collected by Pope Julius II (1503-1513) and placed in what today is the "Cortile Ottagono" within the museum complex. As seen today, the Vatican Museums are a complex of different pontifical museums and galleries that began under the patronage of the popes Clement XIV (1769-1774) and Pius VI (1775-1799). On the last Sunday of each month, the Vatican Museum is open to the public for free. This is extremely popular and it is common for people to wait in line for many hours.

2. Terracotta Army (China)

This museum is not to be missed by any visitor to China. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses are the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century. The figures of this museum include over 8000 warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. The majority of these figures are still buried in the pits.

3. The Hermitage (Russia)

The Hermitage in St. Petersburg was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great purchased a collection of Flemish and Dutch paintings (225) from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernest Gotzkowski. It's collections of works of art present the development of the world culture and art from the Stone Age to the 20th century.

4. Rijksmuseum (Netherlands)

The rijksmuseum is a popular attraction in Amsterdam. From the late 16th century, the Netherlands was a republic. In other words, there was no royal house that amassed an international collection, such as in Spain (Philips II) or Russia (Catharine the Great). Art buyers were citizens. They made purchases mostly in their home country, and not so much abroad. The Rijksmuseum collection is based on these private collections.

5. Kunsthistorisches Museum (Austria)

The building alone numbers among the most important European museum buildings put up during the 19th century. Construction work lasted 20 years, from when ground was first broken in 1871 to the museum building’s completion in the year 1891. It is one of the premier museums of fine arts and decorative arts in the world.

6. The Museo Del Prado (Madrid)

The Prado Museum is renowned as being the largest art gallery in the world. It houses more than 8,600 paintings, of which they exhibit less than 2,000 because of lack of space available. El Prado is one of the most visited sites in Madrid, and it is considered to be among the greatest museums of art in the world.

7. National Museum of Natural History (USA)

The National Museum of Natural History's collections total over 125 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, and human cultural artifacts.

8. Louvre (France)

The world's largest museum contains one of the world’s most important collections of art and antiquities. The building was once France's largest royal palace. It is one of the finest museums in the world of art, art-history, and culture and home of the Mona Lisa.

9. British Museum (UK)

The British Museum is the largest museum in the United Kingdom and therefore it is impossible to see everything in one day. Near the entrance you can find one of the highlights: the Rosetta Stone, the key to the deciphering of hieroglyphs. Another highlight is the Parthenon Sculptures, a series of pediments, metopes, and friezes from the Parthenon in Athens, in the Duveen Gallery.

10. Metropolitan Museum of Arts (USA)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, has a permanent collection containing more than two million works of art from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art.