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Mary Rose Museum facts for kids

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Mary Rose Museum
Mary rose museum exterior.JPG
The New Mary Rose Museum in 2018
Established 1984
Location Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Type Maritime museum
Key holdings Mary Rose warship
Collection size 19,000 artefacts
Visitors 364,295 (2017)
Owner Mary Rose Trust

The Mary Rose Museum is a special museum in Portsmouth, United Kingdom. It is home to a real 16th-century warship, the Mary Rose! The museum is run by the Mary Rose Trust and is located in the Historic Dockyards, an area full of naval history.

What's Inside the Museum?

The museum is all about the famous warship Mary Rose, which was part of the Tudor navy hundreds of years ago. Inside, you can see the actual ship itself, which is kept in a huge, specially designed hall.

Besides the ship, the museum displays over 19,000 artefacts that were found with it. These are real objects used by the crew, giving us a peek into life in the 1500s. Since the museum first opened in 1984, it has been a popular attraction, with more than a million people visiting.

A Modern Home for an Ancient Ship

Mary Rose Museum entrance Geograph 902791 003b3601
The entrance to the old museum building, pictured in 2008.

The ship needed a very special place to be preserved and displayed. In September 2009, the old ship hall was closed to begin building a brand-new museum. This new building opened in May 2013.

Designing the New Museum

MaryRoseMuseum1
A concept drawing of what the new Mary Rose Museum would look like.

The new Mary Rose Museum was designed by the architects WilkinsonEyre and Perkins+Will. Building it was a big challenge. The museum had to be built over the dry dock where the ship was being kept. This dry dock is a protected historical site.

While the museum was being built, the ship's wooden hull was being carefully preserved inside a sealed chamber called a "hotbox". For many years, the wood was sprayed with a special wax called polyethylene glycol to make it strong. In April 2013, the sprays were finally turned off, and a long process of air-drying began.

A Clear View of History

When the new museum first opened, the ship was kept behind glass walls inside the "hotbox" to control the environment. But in 2016, the museum closed for nine months for an exciting update.

This £5.4 million project removed the walls of the "hotbox". Now, visitors can see the amazing Mary Rose with nothing in the way, giving them a clear and breathtaking view of this piece of history.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Mary Rose Museum para niños

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