Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a vast complex that houses over 2 million works of art from around the world and all historical eras. The largest in the Western Hemisphere, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is also the most visited in the United States, with about 5 million people a year, and third in the world after the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London.

The idea for the Met, as its admirers call it, was the brainchild of John Jay, a diplomat, lawyer and grandson of the first chief justice of the United States. In 1866, he was in Paris with several American entrepreneurs with whom he shared his idea of establishing a national gallery in New York to preserve works of art. Indeed, in 1870, the museum opened in temporary quarters with its first exhibit being a Roman sarcophagus.

Gradually the museum's exhibits grew, and within a year it had acquired a magnificent collection of 174 European works of art. A larger building was now needed, the design of which was commissioned to the American architects Calvert Vokes (1824-1895) and Jacob Ray( 1825-1886). The small building was located at the end of Central Park at 82nd Street and Fifth Avenue, as the design of Central Park had intended. The late Gothic Revival style building is constructed of red brick and has a steel and glass roof with the entrance facing Central Park.

In future years the Metropolitan Museum of Art remained on this site, but substantial additions and alterations were made to the building. Thus the museum grew so much that the building designed by Vokes and Ray was literally swallowed up by new wings and additions. The Met's famous facade with its sweeping staircase is now on the Fifth Avenue side. The Great Hall, next to the entrance with its columns and charming arched spaces, was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and built by his son in 1902-1926.

In subsequent years the north and south wings, the Lyman Pavilion, the Sackler Wing for the Dendur Temple, presented by Egypt, and the Michael C. Rockefeller", where artworks from Africa, Oceania and the Americas are arranged. The Metropolitan Museum covers 180 acres , and its collections are spread over 240 rooms on four floors. The Met has such a large collection of art that some of the collections could be considered museums within the museum. For this, it is important for the visitor to know in advance what they want to see and to head to these galleries. As soon as the visitor enters the museum, they can get a diagram of the layout of the departments, and there are guided tours and recorded explanations that will help in viewing the outstanding collections.

The one-to-twenty scale models of the Parthenon, the Pantheon, the "Paris St. Virgin Mary" and the hall with the columns from the "Carnac" of 1883 , welcome visitors to the Great Hall. In 1887, the financier Henry Gurdon Marquand ceded for a time37 European canvases to the museum, among them Vermeer's "Young Woman with a Jug", considered the finest in the collection. In 1913, department store owner Benjamin Altman donated some 500 porcelains and several paintings by Rembrandt to the museum.

The collection of arms and armor is one of the most popular in the museum. It is located on the first floor and among the 15,000 exhibits there are items that belonged to kings and princes such as Henry II and Ferdinand I. The Metropolitan Museum received the first replicas of arms and armour in 1881. Thanks to a large shipment from Japan in 1904, visitors can see the fearsome face masks worn by the Japanese during battles. Among the American weapons of interest are the Kentucky rifle and the Colt revolver. Particularly visited here is the Court with the Riders,whose knights in armor recall the time of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

For music fans is the collection of very rare musical instruments located on the second floor. With nearly five thousand items, the Met's collection is one of the largest in the world. Musical instruments from the Middle and Far East, Africa and the Pacific Islands, and the Americas can be seen here. Notable exhibits include the oldest piano, dating from 1720 and made by its inventor Bartolomeo Cristofori.

It is exciting to see some of the guitars of the distinguished 20th century Spanish classical guitar virtuoso Andres Segovia (1893-1987). Also in the collection are several of the violins of the celebrated stringed instrument makers Andrea Amati of 1560 and his pupil Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737), who created over 1,200 violins, violas, cellos and harps. This remarkable collection of musical instruments was started by Mary Elizabeth Adams (1842-1912), who donated her collection of 270 instruments to the museum in 1889. Along with other donors, she continued to collect and donate instruments to the museum until her death. Interestingly, most of the musical instruments are in working condition and are used in organized concerts at the Met.

The Egyptian Collection features objects and artifacts spanning over three and a half millennia from 3000 BC to 641 AD.

The Robert Leeman Wing is a pyramid-shaped glass pavilion with one of the most remarkable private collections in the museum. In the Grand Gallery are the unsurpassed masterpieces of Corot, Monet and Van Gogh. Giovanni DePaolo's "Expulsion from Paradise" and Botticelli's "Annunciation" stand out in the exquisite red velvet hall.

In the Chinese Department, the Astor Garden, built in 1979 by Chinese craftsmen who used ancient techniques and tools , where you can meditate, is noteworthy.

Galleries of European paintings, a collection of drawings, prints and photographs, ancient Greek and ancient Roman art,Islamic art and many other interesting things offer the huge Metropolitan Museum.

The museum's rooftop garden offers captivating views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. The cafe and bar located on the rooftop is a romantic place to be especially on Friday and Saturday nights. Sometimes temporary exhibitions are organized here, which add to the extraordinary atmosphere.

With the ball at the beginning of May, the annual fashion exhibitions of the Institute of Costume History are opened and show business stars gather with the most distinguished models.

The shops on the first floor of the Metropolitan Museum sell not only books but reproductions from the galleries, as well as beautiful jewelry, scarves, toys, records and three-dimensional reproductions. And perhaps the most attractive place in the Met is the staircase off Fifth Avenue. Buy something to eat from a street vendor and sit there watching the many visitors.