From money boxes to religion, advertising and superstition.
Extrastern — Public domain · Fritz Reiss — CC BY 4.0 · Ank Kumar — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ank Kumar — CC BY-SA 4.0
A private museum occupying buildings in the old slaughterhouse quarter east of Stuttgart, which claims the largest collection in the world devoted to a single animal: more than fifty thousand objects, all about pigs, spread across twenty-five themed rooms. It moved to this larger site in 2010 after outgrowing its first home. The premise sounds like a joke and the museum does not deny it, but the material itself is serious: the pig in religion and superstition, the pig as a luck symbol in German folk culture, money boxes shaped like pigs, the history of breeding and butchery, the pig in advertising, in art and in children's books, and a whole room about the slaughterhouse district the museum sits inside. The objects come from every continent, from Chinese porcelain to political cartoons. Tickets are six euros ninety for adults and three euros for children between seven and fourteen, and the museum is closed every Monday, opening Tuesday to Sunday from ten to five. One to two hours is enough, and most labels are German only. On the site there is a restaurant and beer garden specialising in pork dishes, which is something a Muslim visitor needs to know before booking a meal. The butchery section is frank in what it shows.
From money boxes to religion, advertising and superstition.
The museum fills the buildings that gave the district its name.
Schlachthofstrasse 2a, 70188 Stuttgart
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