Just when you think I’ve run out of tiny museums, I go and find another one. I’ve told you about the Grant Museum of Zoology’s Micarium, Edgar’s Closet, the micro-museum known as Mµseum, the Red Telephone Box Museum, Musée-Placard d’Erik Satie, the “Smallest House in Great Britain” (which I personally visited a decade ago), and even The World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things Traveling Roadside Attraction and Museum. Now it’s time for the “Smallest Ethnological Museum in the World!”
Forget the big crowds. The capacity of the Ethno Museum in Džepčište, Macedonia is exactly one…the collector Simeon Zlatev, known as Mone. Well, except for a visitor or two. For more than thirty years he has been collecting artifacts related to the history of his tiny village, some dating back 8,000 years. More than 1,150 items are displayed in a couple of rooms at the family home. Although the objects are stuffed to capacity, they are carefully catalogued. Visitors can see old photos, antique chests, vintage radiograms and cameras, ceramics and even a photo of Mone’s mother on her wedding day with the dress she was wearing hung up beside it. His mother is now over 90 years old. Mone’s museum is so small that he will unpack part of the exhibit and lay it out in his garden while you drink coffee/tea and listen to stories. Not something you’d expect at a museum, but definitely a one-of-a-kind experience!
