Mini-Europe

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Mini-Europe's model of the Palace of Westminster. Visible in the background is the Eiffel Tower model.
Mini-Europe's model of the Palace of Westminster. Visible in the background is the Eiffel Tower model.

Mini-Europe is a part of Heysel in Brussels, Belgium that contains replicas of famous buildings from countries in the European Union, presented at a scale of 1 to 25. The buildings on display are famed for their exquisite detail, which took over €75,000 per model to reproduce.

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[edit] Making the models

In 1987, several art historians selected over 100 European buildings of cultural importance; it was from this list that many of the models at Mini-Europe come. On-site work to take detailed photographs of the buildings cost over €200,000, and sometimes it took multiple trips to garner enough details to make and appropriate 1:25 scale model.

To build the models, 55 workshops from 9 member states collaborated to construct pre-models out of a variety of materials. These pre-models were then used to create moulds, which led to the final model, cast from epoxy or polyester. Finally, the models were painted. All told, this process was extremely labour-intensive, requiring, for example, over 24,000 hours for the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

[edit] List of models

Austria
Belgium
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
  • Great Coastal Gate and Fat Margaret's Tower, Tallinn
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Slovakia
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
Other



[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 50.894° N 4.339° E

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