Rome‘s wax museum (Museo delle Cere) was founded in 1958. It was built because a certain Fernando Canini wanted to give the city of Rome a museum like the ones he had visited in Paris and London.
Wax Museum Rome
Useful information
Address: Piazza dei Santi Apostoli, 68/A – Rome. Phone: +39 06 6796482. Opening times: From 09.00 till 21.00. Last admission: 20.00. Entrance fee: 10 Euros (children up to 1,40 metres tall: 8 Euros; children up to 1 metre tall: Free; family of at least five people: 8 Euros per person. Roma Pass holders: 50% off.
History and description
At the moment the 11 rooms of the museum exhibit 250 wax models, including historical figures like Hitler, Churchill, Mao Che Tung and Stalin, but also artists like Picasso, Charlie Chaplin and a number of composers. Colombus and Napoleon are present, and so is Bob Marley.
Italian representatives include Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, the poet Giacomo Leopardi, Dante Alighieri and Giuseppe Garibaldi and King Vittorio Emanuele II.
The two Roman football teams are represented by Francesco Totti (Roma) and Alessandro Nesta (Lazio).
Some rooms have been used to enact important events from the past. In one room Lenin addresses a group of Russian farmers and in another one Lincoln is shown in the Theatre of Washington in 1895.
The more contemporary statues are wearing the clothes worn by their originals.
In one room a number of reproductions of execution instruments like the guillotine and the electric chair can be seen, while children can admire fairy tale figures like Cinderella and Snow White.
The last addition was Barack Obama.