Each year, the European Museum Forum gives the European Museum of the Year Award to the most-deserving winner. This year, 46 museums were nominated, some in Germany and Switzerland. Which one has what it takes to win?
Image: Vogelwarte Sempach/B. Marcel
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Europe's new and innovative museums
Each year the European Museum Forum gives the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) to the most-deserving winner. This year, 46 museums were nominated, with some in Germany and Switzerland.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/N. Falco
Enthography in Switzerland
Europe rewards museums that are newly renovated of that have redesigned their presentation. The 2017 European Museum of the Year (EMYA) is Geneva's Museum of Ethnography (MEG - Musée d’ethnographie de Genève) in Switzerland. A total of 46 museums were nominated for the prize. Here are some of the candidates in Germany and Switzerland.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/N. Falco
The Football Museum in Dortmund
Dortmund's German Football Museum is located in this colorful, futuristic new building, opened in 2015 by the German Football Association. The is about more than just football; socio-political topics are also discussed. Visitors can learn why, in 1989, the European champion women's team only recieved a meager reception, or how the East German secret police were involved in the sport.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Thissen
The Begas Haus museum in Heinsberg
Initially, this museum in Heinsberg, Germany was a local history museum. Then, the decision was made to expand it by adding an extension. In the foreground of this picture are the famous painter and sculptor family Begas, which hail from Heinsberg. Visitors embark on an interactive journey through the region's history from the Romantic period to the "Gründerzeit" period of economic prosperity.
Image: Begas Haus
Königstein Fortress in Saxony
This historic fortress is situated in the mountainous region of Saxony, Germany. The new permanent exhibition provides an overview of the 800-year history of the castle and fortress and the 60 buildings that sit on the 9.5-hectare site. In the more than 20 years since the end of the German Democratic Republic, the museum has collected exhibition items and now has plenty to offer visitors.
Image: Festung Königstein gGmbH
Where visitors turn into birds
Whoever enters the ecologically constructed visitors' center of the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Sempach, Switzerland can expect to see the world from a bird's perspective. Throughout the visit, visitors must think like a bird, deciding what to eat or where to live. At the end of the tour, visitors learn what kind of bird they resemble most based on their decisions.
Image: Vogelwarte Sempach/B. Marcel
Restored: The Town Hall Museum in Sempach
The Town Hall Museum in Sempach was also nominated for a European Museum of the Year Award. Built in 1447, the building was renovated three years ago. Now, instead of only having capacity to show small exhibitions, the new and spacious four-storey museum can offer much more. Exhibitions about religion, as well as resistance to customs, are accompanied by multimedia features.
Image: Rathausmuseum Sempach/C. I. Barrer
The Hansemuseum in Lübeck
Very few items remain from the Hanseatic period, so a great deal of research and imagination are needed to reconstruct this era of history. At the new Hansemuseum in Lübeck, Germany has managed to recreate 10 Hanseatic sites, including the market square in Bruges and a hall in Lübeck. The few objects that remain from this period in the Late Middle Ages are displayed in small exhibition rooms.
Image: Olaf Malzahn
The Roman mine in Kretz, Germany
In the Roman mine in Kretz, Germany, visitors can have a true hands-on experience. In addition to visiting the ancient mine, where tuff was once dismantled, visitors can also experience "Ancient Technology World," where machinery from Roman times and the Middle Ages like cranes, mills and byzantine marble saws can be tested.
Image: Römerbergwerk/S. David Zimpfer
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The Museum of the Year Award, EMYA for short, is one of the most well-respected museum designations around. Since 1977, the European Museum Forum has given the award to either a newly-opened museum or one with a remodeled exhibition. The aim of the accolade is to support and highlight innovative developments on the international museum scene.
Museums nominated for EMYA are those which appeal to the public in a special way or have a unique atmosphere. Size, location and the amount of publicity received do not play a role in the nomination process.
Famous award-winners in recent years have included the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (2000) and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (2015). Last year, the prize went to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews (POLIN) in Warsaw.
The museum is currently housing the EMYA trophy: a sculpture by English artist Henry Moore called "The Egg." It goes on loan to the winning museum for the year, and is then passed on to the next museum that receives the award.
This year's winner will be announced at the end of the EMYA conference held from May 3-6 in Zagreb, Croatia.
