Frog Museum – Estavayer-le-Lac, Switzerland - Atlas Obscura

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Frog Museum

Estavayer-le-Lac, Switzerland

150-year-old satirical tableaus made from stuffed frogs. 

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The Frog Museum in Estavayer-le-Lac, Switzerland is a collection of 150-year-old satirical tableaus of domestic life in the 19th century—all involving stuffed frogs.

The museum opened in 1927. According to legend, its collection began in the 1850s thanks to an eccentric military member who harbored a special love for tailless amphibians and began collecting them on his walks across the countryside. The story goes that the officer would take the frogs home, gut them, and fill the sacks of skin with sand before posing them in quirky dioramas.

You’ll find much more than stuffed amphibians at this museum, though. In addition to the 108 taxidermy frogs, there’s also a collection of Swiss armaments and battle regalia and many objects related to local history, including a 17th-century kitchen, displayed in a series of small interconnecting rooms.

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March 18, 2010

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