Tiny Buildings in Austria

January 23, 2007 3:40 PM

Minimundus is an Austrian theme park with seemingly all the major architectural wonders of the world rendered in miniature; while their primary site is woefully low on imagery, here's three pages worth of photos of their better exhibits.
posted by jonson (20 comments total)

Looks a lot like Shenzhen's Window of the World

How many of these are there in the (real) world?
posted by vacapinta at 3:53 PM on January 23, 2007

Wow very cool - this place is amazing. Some (no, most) of those buildings are totally new to me, but there's no info on the linked pages (e.g. the 5th one down on 'here's' - something from USSR or DDR?)
posted by Flashman at 3:55 PM on January 23, 2007

What is this building?! I want to live in it!
posted by phrontist at 4:06 PM on January 23, 2007

Didn't Legoland kinda do that first?
posted by miss lynnster at 4:06 PM on January 23, 2007

This is just like Legoland, except that a taj mahal made of legos brings back fond memories, while a brilliant model of an Aztec pyramid brings only memories of a boring history class.
posted by KingoftheWhales at 4:08 PM on January 23, 2007

If by "first" you mean 40 years after, then yes.
posted by jonson at 4:08 PM on January 23, 2007

The first Legoland was opened in 1968, although thats still 10 years after Minimundus.
posted by vacapinta at 4:14 PM on January 23, 2007

Yeah, but when legoland first opened, it was just random bricks of lego scattered on the ground. Sure, it was a LOT of lego, but nothing all that special. They didn't get the idea to start making miniature monuments from the stuff until like 2004 or so.
posted by jonson at 4:18 PM on January 23, 2007

I wont bother to nominate Shenzhen. Although its a city of 6 million people now, it was all empty farmland in 1979 (I am NOT joking, look it up)
posted by vacapinta at 4:29 PM on January 23, 2007

a brilliant model of an Aztec pyramid brings only memories of a boring history class.

Not at all! This is very cute, thanks jonson. But yeah, captions would have been nice.
posted by ClarissaWAM at 4:30 PM on January 23, 2007

Very, very cool.
posted by zardoz at 4:39 PM on January 23, 2007

Whoa, they have a space shuttle that actually launches with smoke and stuff?!
posted by mathowie at 4:44 PM on January 23, 2007

Reminds me of Madurodam - "All of Holland in just one city!" - which features miniatures of most of the sights.
posted by shinybeast at 5:03 PM on January 23, 2007

Amazing. I wonder what the par is on the acropolis? This would make the greatest miniature golf course of all time.
posted by jgee at 5:18 PM on January 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

Reminds me of Mini Europe. I once visited that place on a school trip. I remember it as a profoundly boring experience.

Look, it's the Eiffel Tower! Only a lot ... smaller! There, Big Ben! Only not so big!

Main lesson learned that day: most (European) monuments are impressive because they're friggin huge. Still, nice post: it makes me wonder just how many of these things there are worldwide, and how many man-hours have been spent to bore countless busloads of kids to death.
posted by Siberian Mist at 5:52 PM on January 23, 2007

That is the best miniature golf course ever! It also brings to mind the 16" Stonehenge from This Is Spinal Tap.
posted by Mister_A at 6:26 PM on January 23, 2007

The first one seems to have been Britain's Bekonscot (in Bucks). I believe there's a Borrowers story or novel that has them living in one of these.
posted by dhartung at 6:45 PM on January 23, 2007

That space shuttle looks pretty cool. They even have smoke, too bad they don't do flames..

Notice how even in miniature, the true purpose of the CN Tower is obviously navigation - you could almost build a park map only referencing it.

Here are some pictures of the now defunct Tivoli Miniature World. A pail imitation, it would seem.
posted by Chuckles at 6:49 PM on January 23, 2007

Am I the only one thinking of playing Godzilla there? Very cool but I wish pics were labeled.
posted by sfts2 at 3:21 AM on January 24, 2007

The future of mass tourism in the post-carbon age.
posted by stbalbach at 5:10 AM on January 24, 2007