×

Mini castles in a Mini Museum

Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Ellie and Terry Sveine stand next to their Enchanted Castles collection on display in Minnesota’s Smallest Museum.

NEW ULM — Minnesota’s Smallest Museum held a grand opening for the “Enchanted Castles of Europe” series Friday.

The Smallest Museum is located in front of the Grand Center of Arts and Culture. For the next two months, a collection of nine miniature castles will be on display. The castles are on loan from Terry and Ellie Sveine.

These little castles are part of the “Enchanted Castles of Europe” series. Each miniature is an extremely detailed, scale model of a real castle.

Terry Sveine said he and his wife began collected the models in 1994. The two saw an ad in the Sunday newspaper’s Parade section advertising a model of Germany’s famed “Neuschwanstein” castle from the Danbury Mint.

The Sveines decided to buy the model as a post-trip souvenir. They had visited the actual castle two years earlier and thought the model would look good on their fireplace.

After buying the first model, they learned this was part of a series. Over the next two years, the Sveines received more models of castles from all over Europe including, the Mont Saint-Michel in France, the Kronborg Castle in Denmark, The Alcazar in Spain, among others. They managed to collect 12 of the castles.

“How can you not be enchanted by castles?” Terry said of his collection.

This collection is the next best thing to visiting the castles in person. Sveine said he has made a goal of visit all of the castles in the collection but has only seen three of them so far.

The collection is visually impressive and the miniature castles have become rare. The Enchanted Castle series is discontinued. The display is a chance to see these models all together in one place.

The Enchanted Castles exhibit will be on display in the Smallest Museum for the next two months.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper?
   

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today