Monaco Now - A miniature Monaco and Grand Prix

The Principality of Monaco has been re-created in the smallest detail at the Miniatur Wunderland Museum in Hamburg, Germany. The display now features a Formula 1 Grand Prix track!

Visitors to the Miniatur Wunderland Museum in Hamburg, Germany can now race the 22-metre long Monaco Grand Prix with small single-seater Formula 1 cars. The miniature museum has perfectly reproduced a mini-Principality and Formula 1 race track, as well as a Formula E track. The display is completely automatic and piloted using artificial intelligence.

Eleven years were needed to complete the display. The technological innovation that brings the miniature cars to life on the track using a mobile magnetic field took 150,000 hours to develop and 100,000 hours of programming. A monitoring system controls the vehicles individually and has them overtake one another in a series of impressive moves.

Inaugurated on 25 April 2024 in the presence of Prince Albert II of Monaco and Princess Charlène, the 36 square-metre reproduction of the Principality includes its port, the Royal Palace, the Casino, the Hotel Fairmont and the Oceanographic Museum, along with 304 homes, 7,000 figurines, 4,000 trees, 300 cars and 175 boats.

For Frederik Braun, the founder of Miniatur Wunderland, who came to the Formula 1 Grand Prix every year with his family, the Monaco display was a childhood dream come true. “Monaco was difficult to build because many people can visualise what the Principality looks like. It took a long time to create the designs and start building the Formula 1 track. It was crazy. We offer a one-of-a-kind experience to visitors”, explains the German businessman, who heads Germany’s largest tourist attraction, with 1.4 million visitors every year.

Next to the world’s longest electric railway (13 kilometres) and models of Venice, Las Vegas and Rio de Janeiro, the Monaco display includes a miniature Royal Palace, crafted carefully based on photographs to ensure the most realistic result possible. The Museum indicates that “hours were spent studying every detail to capture the essence of the historic landmark”. The entire structure is lit up at night, and in green – just like the real Palace – for St. Patrick’s Day.

The miniature Oceanographic Museum includes a jellyfish aquarium in which a rotating cylinder creates the illusion that the fish float. The Miniatur Wunderland Museum has a model of Provence as well, with the Verdon Gorge, the ruins of Castelbouc castle and the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Sénanque in the middle of a lavender field.

For more information, see: https://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/

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