HAMBURG, Germany — We had a panoramic view of Rio de Janeiro and its surroundings: the Sugar Loaf, the Christ the Redeemer statue, Copacabana beach. Architectural novelties such as the Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art and the Metropolitan Cathedral stood out among the sea of buildings, while trains and trams passed by, and thousands of dancers strutted and strutted during the celebration of the City’s Carnival.
However, Rio was more than 10,000 kilometers away, while my husband, son and I were in a building in Speicherstadt, Hamburg’s historic winery district.
The scene we were admiring is one of more than a dozen exhibits at Miniatur Wunderland, home to the largest miniature railway and the largest miniature airport in the world. Rio’s meticulous replica was inaugurated as Wunderland’s newest exhibit in December 2021, built over the course of four years in partnership with a family-owned model-making business in Argentina.
“Amazing,” my husband said several times during our five hours of marveling at the reproductions from Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, the United States, and elsewhere, complete with tiny hand-painted figures engaging in the myriad activities of daily life. Across all the landscapes, trains rattled along 50,000 feet of track.
The project began in 2000 when twin brothers Frederik and Gerrit Braun, then 32, dreamed of creating the world’s largest model railway.
The brothers, who grew up train enthusiasts, ended up operating a nightclub and record label in Hamburg in the 1990s, but ultimately wanted a lifestyle change. With the help of friends and family, the Brauns opened the life-size doors of the Miniatur Wunderland in 2001.
Since then, the place has attracted more than 21 million visitors from all over the world, becoming one of the main tourist attractions in Germany. However, in some places, Miniatur Wunderland is known mainly among fans of miniature railways and other fans of scale constructions.
We consider ourselves lucky to have a son, now 15, who has been obsessed with anything that moves mechanically since he was old enough to point. We don’t anticipate our own charm with this tiny world, full of minute details and technological wizardry, of course, but also brimming with whimsy and humor.
For example, let’s take the diorama of Italy. Among the faithful reproductions of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Colosseum and Mount Vesuvius (regular eruptions and all), there are small moving vignettes, activated by pressing a button. In one, Pinocchio’s nose grows 15 centimeters in a small hut. Elsewhere, a little Michelangelo bounces off a springboard to reach the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with his brush.
As we toured the place, we realized that the landscapes were anything but static.
Besides the passing trains, cars, and ships (in the Scandinavian section, the ships sail tides in real water), most of the figures, a few inches tall, are doing something.
“Over time, the model train became less important and storytelling and creativity became much more important,” said Thomas Cerny, spokesman for Miniatur Wunderland.
“The builders of the models are what make the whole show special,” Cerny said. “If you know them, you can even tell who built what, since they each have their own sense of humor.”
He pointed to a small detail: Those statues of saints on the columns in St. Peter’s Square? They wear clothes made from paper napkins from the Wunderland bistro.
By: CINDY HIRSCHFELD
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6570741, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-02-14 20:20:06
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