TITANIC BELFAST

This is without a doubt the capital's most important visit. Located right next to the famous historic Harland and Wolff shipbuilding site, this attraction traces the history of the Titanic in the city where it was born. The building alone is worth a visit with its light-catching, undulating aluminum facade, reminiscent of Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie, Lyon's Musée des Confluences or the Fondation Vuitton in Paris. Its seductive angular shape evokes the bow of a ship. The museum is almost as emblematic as the Titanic whose history it recounts (4,200^m3 of concrete were poured in 24 hours to ensure its foundations!) For the record, the Titanic Belfast can accommodate 3,547 visitors at a time, the same capacity as the original Titanic and its facades measure 27 meters, the same height as the Titanic from keel to deck! James Cameron himself called it "phenomenal". If you only know the Titanic from James Cameron's movie, this visit is a must to go beyond the clichés, to get away from the romanticism and dig into the concrete reality of this mythical ship. Throughout the nine galleries spread over six floors, the past of the colossus, its construction site, its workers, its challenges and its tragic sinking are all on display. The launch of the museum was chosen for March 2012, the year corresponding to the centenary of the tragedy, which took place in 1912. Since then, it has become an unmissable event for all visitors, but also for the locals, who have thus reclaimed their past and their heritage. A visit here allows for a fun and exciting tour: 3D videos, documentaries, life-size models, rare objects found after the shipwreck, reconstruction of the cabins according to the different classes, etc. An experience that brings the Titanic back to life and will fascinate both history lovers and the simply curious. The museum is truly designed to provide an immersive and interactive experience for the spectators who take the place of the workers, passengers and crew of the famous liner. When the tour discusses the cranes of the shipyard and the height at which the men worked, we suddenly go up to the^4th floor where we overlook the rest of the museum and where the sounds of the shipyard accompany us. When the doors of the elevator open we discover this sentence: "Let's go to work"! The museum sometimes takes on the air of an amusement park with, among other things, the Shipyard Ride, a train that takes us, in the middle of the visit, with the workers to the shipyard. The Titanic is not only a love story, and it is the strength of this museum to remind us of this. The Titanic is above all the story of thousands of workers, of an entire city that gave everything to build it and that staked everything on its construction. The emotions are strong because we understand that all this work, all this genius, all these efforts ended at the bottom of the water. We understand the broken hope and pride of Belfast. The room of the sinking is particularly moving with the distress messages sent by the Titanic and reproduced hour by hour on the walls of the room. The silence reigns. In the last part of the exhibition, we take place in a huge amphitheater and we dive into the ocean in search of the wreck of the Titanic which is revealed little by little under the water. Fascinating!