Museum of Leonardo da Vinci’s Inventions.
A visit to the small but very interesting interactive Leonardo da Vinci Museum will evoke enthusiastic feelings in any child. The modern exposition with information multimedia displays is housed in a medieval building. The guests are introduced to models of inventions made on the basis of the genius scientist’s drawings. Young explorers and technicians will be delighted that most of the models can be touched, turned in their hands and scrutinised, assembling and disassembling mechanisms on the principle of Lego construction. Children will be surprised to learn that such attributes of modern life as bicycles, aqualungs, diving suits, aeroplanes and many other things were invented by the great Leonardo centuries ago.
In the main hall, 40 mechanisms are on display, with video clips on nearby screens showing them in action. A ship with propeller wheels, a multi-barrel artillery piece, a bicycle, a car, a tank, a submarine, a helicopter, a parachute and a drum with programmable rhythms were intended for Cesare Borgia’s army, where Leonardo served as an engineer. Only the pistol lock, used until the IXX century, was implemented.
Leonardo Da Vinci was particularly interested in levitation and several times tried to build an ornithopter, a means of flying controlled by hand. The model in the museum closely resembles the huge wings of a bat.
The artist and sculptor Leonardo wanted to understand the mechanics of the human body, and reproductions of his drawings are on display in the Anatomical Hall. The animated images show the interaction of various muscles, bones and tendons. The famous Vitruvian Man, assembled from LED strips, sets the perfect proportions for artists drawing people.
Copies of the great paintings can be seen in the Hall of Mirrors, another invention of the Italian genius. Here one finds oneself in a crowd of one’s own reflections, face to face with Gioconda or St Jerome.
In Da Vinci’s Laboratory, children and adults explore the laws of physics, try to understand unsolved blueprints and use them to build the next masterpiece of technical thought.
