As the guardians of the world's artistic heritage, museums have always played in important role in our culture. However, the buildings themselves are sometimes superb masterpieces and splendid examples of a vast array of styles. From the controversial Louvre Pyramid to the stylistic elegance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, this sophisticated work offers an overview of the architecture of the world's most famous museums. Giulia Camin, the author, has written a superb history of museums accompanied by architectural plans, detailed drawings and photographs of the interiors and facades. The visual images are interspersed with information about the architects and engineers who played a key role in the design and construction of these important buildings. The book focuses on a selection of museums scattered all over the world, including the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Prado in Madrid, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and the huge Smithsonian Complex in Washington DC. The volume takes the reader on a tour of several modern masterpieces, such as the Jewish Museum in Berlin, designed by Daniel Libeskind, and the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao by Frank Gehry, considered by many to be the most important museum building of the 20th century. The photographs, commissioned specially for the book, show the innovative design of the interior of the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, where the different heights of the ceilings and varying intensity of the lighting of the mainly underground galleries create the ideal atmosphere for recalling the Holocaust. The Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, in contrast, stands almost 1000 feet above sea level and is topped by a first-class restaurant that offers panoramic views over the principality and the coast. This book is an essential resource for students of architecture, professional architects and culture-loving travelers eager to visit some of the most famous museums in the world. 686 colour photographs