Stuttgart, Germany is home to the world’s largest pig museum featuring over 40,000 pigs in 28 theme rooms. Despite this, the Pig Museum is not well known. In asking over 20 locals and expats, no one had heard of it.
The Pig Museum was one of the places on my list of Travel New Year’s Resolutions to travel closer to home. I was intrigued, but not sure what to expect from a Pig Museum. I had to drag J.P. (my German fiance).
The Pig Museum is pig kitsch at it’s best, as one might expect when you have 40,000 pigs stuffed into one 800 m sq building. One room alone had 2000 piggy banks! But it was also surprisingly informative, and humorous in places and most of the signs were in both German and English.
Pig siamese twins were another highlight at the Pig Museum!
Pigs have been kept as domestic animals for over 9000 years, with the oldest evidence found in south eastern Turkey. Any guesses about the world’s largest producer of pork? Hint, it’s not Germany, but………….China! China produces ~ 50% of all the world’s pork! You’re not likely to find pigs in Islamic countries though. Afghanistan’s pig population totals 1 and that pig is in the Kabul Zoo.
What surprised me most about the Pig Museum is that 1 of the theme rooms was dedicated to pigs and sexuality, I dubbed it the Pig Porn Room. I can almost see the confused expression on your face that probably is similar to the perplexed expression on my face as I stepped into this room. It turns out that pigs are a symbol for sexuality since females have long fertility periods, but most impressive, female pigs can have orgasms lasting up to 30 minutes! I don’t think I really want to know how they know that, but this is the one thing I learned at the Pig Museum that I don’t think I’m likely to forget, and as I discovered at an expat dinner tonight, makes for interesting dinner conversation. Sorry no photos from the Pig Porn Room, but be assured that there no photos of real pigs, just figurines and “art” in which I use the term loosely here.
One of the piggy bank rooms in the Pig Museum
The piggy bank also has an interesting history, although no one is sure where the piggy bank originated. It’s thought that the idea of pigs gaining weight quickly resembled to your savings growing quickly (if only that were true!), but the connection between pigs and moneys dates back to the 5th century B.C. when pigs were imprinted on coins and piggy banks have been used in many different countries for thousands of years.
The Pig Museum also featured lots of pig art. Life sized bronzed pigs, pig sculptures, pig portraits and lots of pig figurines. One of my favorite pieces of pig art was the photo on the left which is a reenactment of a scene from the bible, but I’m not sure which one. This sign was only in German and J.P. was having a hard time translating it compounded by the fact that neither of us has read the bible for a while.
Another thing I enjoyed about the Pig Museum was a country chart of the world’s biggest pork eaters. Surprisingly Germany is not in the top 3! Those honors go to: 1) Austria 2)Spain 3) Serbia. Germany came in 4th, Canada was 27th. (These figures are from 2005.)
Queen of the Pigs at the Pig Museum? Not a title that I think I want.
The Pig Museum wouldn’t be in my “Top 5 Must See” list, but to be fair, few museums would be. I did enjoy it though and thought it was a nice way to spend an hour learning about something new and I did come away with some memorable info that I actually remember 2 weeks later.
What is the strangest museum you have been to? Include the name, location and a brief description and I’ll include a round up of the strangest museums in a blog post next week with your name and a link to your website. To be included in the round up please leave a comment below before Feb 1, 2011.
The Schweine (Pig)Museum Homepage
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I'm Laurel, a former Program Director from Canada now living in Munich, Germany. I love traveling, diving, and hiking. I'm also an animal enthusiast with a special affinity for monkeys, cats and sharks.
Okay, this one needs to get filed under the “most bizarre” museum category! Too funny. I guess there’s a museum for everything isn’t there!
Cam recently posted..Photo Essay- Snowboarding in Whistler- British Columbia
Who’d have thought there would be a pig museum?
I guess the weirdest I have been to would have to be the newly opened Red Terror Martyrs Memorial Museum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Why weird?
http://holesinmysoles.blogspot.com/2011/01/terror-at-red-terror-martyrs-memorial.html
I think the exhumed remains in the coffins we encountered were awaiting reburial in a new Mass Grave display.
Believe it or not, I have heard about the museum, but then I’m a musuem junkie always on the lookout ofr strange and weird collections. That’s why I particulalrly enjoeyed this post and I’m sure you will dine out on ‘pig porn’ for some time to come. My weirdest musuem (which has closed a few years ago) was also in Germany, the Nachttopf Museum (pottie museum) in Munich.
inka recently posted..Syros – a very different Greek island
I wouldn’t have thought that a post about a pig museum would interest me much, but yours certainly did! Fun stuff! Off the top of my head, I think that the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota was the strangest I’ve been to. Austin is the home of Hormel, the makers of Spam. I’ve never eaten Spam (and turned down free samples at the museum), but many rave about it for various reasons. I had a roommate once who ate it all the time because it was so cheap.
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That is the craziest museum ever! I don’t think I’ve ever been to anything that would even come close to that
Absolutely love it! I don’t think I could resist visiting the world’s largest pig museum either. (i wonder what other pig museums they compare themselves to?)
@Cam – agreed, but Germany seems to be the land of strange museums. There’s also a Bread Museum not far from where I live that I must see. Seriously bread?
@Jim – sounds freaky. Thanks, I’ll definitely include it in the post next week.
@Inka – why am I not surprised you’ve heard of the Pig Museum
Glad someone has, it deserves more attention. Is that pottie, like where you go to the bathroom pottie? Definitely worthy of inclusion as well.
@Cathy – thanks! A Spam Museum? That’s even stranger than a Pig Museum. Will have to google this, but will include it in the post next week.
@Sabrina – it was definitely interesting and better than expected
@Glen – thanks! Good point, out of curiosity I googled “Pig Museum’ and see that they also exist in Paris, Austria and Italy. I’m sure there are others as well, but interesting to find a few others in a quick search.
That siamese twin picture almost did me in ! There is a gopher hole museum in Torrington, which is somewhere between Calgary & Edmonton, that has always intrigued me.
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Oh good grief the pig museum sounds amazing!! I love pigs: this post has just pushed Stuttgart right up my list of places to visit
Thanks Laurel!
The weirdest museum I’ve been to was the Stalin museum in Gori, Georgia (the town here he was born), which presented Stalin as a talented, selfless chap who, upon becoming a politician, stopped making decisions for his own good and started making them for the good of the state, requiring him to use his power somewhat ruthlessly (ie kill 25 million people – but remember, it was all for the good of the state). Trotsky didn’t get a single mention in the whole tour, but I did learn that Stalin was an accomplished pianist and sang in a choir as a small boy. The museum is built next to the house where Stalin was born and they have all kinds of things on display there, from his personal shaving kit to his personal railway carriage. My favourite exhibit, however, was – no, not the enormous lamp made of guns – the bronze “death mask” that was made of Stalin’s face after he died, which I viewed in total darkness because the lights didn’t work.
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You are surprised by a bread museum in Germany? Really? How long have you been there?
Just pulling your leg. My non-German friends make fun of me because I miss German bread so much and still can’t get used to the American stuff after so many years here. I’ve never been to a bread museum, but I’m not surprised there’s one in Germany 
@ Tracy – I had never though of pig Siamese twins before, go figure! How have I not heard of the gopher museum? Will definitely include it next week, thanks!
@Frau Dietz – yes, it’s worth a trip and there’s also a bread museum in a nearby down, haven’t been yet, but how can I not go? That sounds like quite the interesting take on Stalin, can’t say I’ve ever heard him presented in that light before. And a “death mask” ugghhh. Will include it next week. Thanks.
@Sabrina – I really shouldn’t be surprised by a bread museum, but my Canadian self finds it hilarious. I’ve also heard there’s a hammer museum in Frankfurt which I think I almost have to go to just out of curiosity, although I’m keeping my expectations in check. J.P. hates the bread in Canada when he’s there as well. The first thing he does when he’s back in Germany is buy some good ol German bread.
Ok, this proves there’s a museum for everything!! ha! This is crazy and very curious!
Norbert recently posted..Perth- Australia – Quick City Guide
OMG! There’s a museum for everything these days!
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The sex toy museum in Prague, Czech Republic.
Some of the “toys” used back in medieval times….yikes!
@ Norbert & Laura – Very true
@Crhis – Seriously? I’m almost scared to look. Thanks for stopping by, will definitely include it in the post next week.
Fabulous! A pig museum! My contribution might not be the weirdest, since it is in Amsterdam: the
Hash Musuem.
http://hashmuseum.com/
I’m Dutch, but have been an expat living elsewhere for ages, and to my chagrin I have not yet been to this museum. Will make a point of it in the next couple of years!
Loved the pigs, for sure.
@ Miss Footloose – Thanks for the contribution. I never would have guessed a Hash Museum, even in Amsterdam. I never seem to visit museums in my own country either, it’s only when I’m living elsewhere that I really go to museums.
A pig museum, why not. Don’t think I have ever been in one.
And I thought that Germans has no humor
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Goodness. I can’t think of anything stranger than this. The strangest “museum” I’ve been to is the Walhalla Temple in Germany. It’s essentially a collection of busts of the most famous and respected Germans. It was King Ludwig’s idea–an idea that has become a bit creepy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walhalla_temple
@Thomas – Well there’s also a wurst museum and a bread museum in Germany so I think they take their food pretty seriously
@Christoper – OK, that is just plain weird, but I guess King Ludwig was a little “out there”. Thanks for your submission.
[...] most unusual museum I had ever been to, an even more unusual museum than the World’s Largest Pig Museum in Stuttgart. What would you think if you saw a collection of egg holders and a display loosely [...]
I will have an extra day in Stuttgart after attend the N Scale Model Railway show in November . I was wondering what to do with that day. Now I know.
You should visit the Neu Messe between Nov 17th to 20th for the many fairs that are on then.
Thanks for the great blog.