A museum that raises terror in Vienna .. corpses, skulls, bones and human viscera
The Vienna Museum of Natural History has redesigned its pathological anatomy exhibit, which includes skulls, human organs such as bones and viscera, and the carcasses of infants preserved in transparent boxes, while explaining to visitors, some of whom are shocked and terrified.
The museum's collection, which is the largest open to the public in the world, contains 50,000 preserved objects, and is displayed in the circular "Nariturm" (or "Tower of the Madmen"), which was built in the eighteenth century as a psychiatric hospital.
The new presentation emphasizes the discreet character that necessitated a great deal of work to make the required adjustments.
Thousands of visitors come every week to see what this collection contains of bones, viscera and more.
Museum director Voland defended opening visits to the public, while other countries chose to limit them to researchers only.
"Everyone faces disease someday," said Voland, highlighting the pedagogical advantages of displaying this unique collection that had been dedicated since 1796 to the training of medical students.
She explained that "there are those who come to get information because they are personally interested, while others seek to learn more about the progress of science."
The visitor learns, for example, what a tumor in the eye causes, and sees the effects of a virus on the body or what burns cause to blood vessels.
Curator Edward Venter noted that visitors "realize what alcoholic beverages can do to the human body" when they see "a thirty-kilogram liver".
Biology teacher Christian Behavi, who was visiting the exhibition with a group of his students, said that their ability to "understand" if they saw what they were studying "is greater than if it was a theoretical lesson" on the school benches.
However, some of the disciples seemed shocked at what they saw, here the skeleton of a girl with hydrocephalus, the body of an infant with torn skin preserved in a liquid preparation, and so on.
Therefore, the line between these corpses and human organs is an exhibition and their transformation is a show.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news