The most famous ship in the world is the Titanic. The tragedy and the 1997 film have made him immortal. The film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet garnered not only Oscars but fans of the story around the world.
If you are one of them you cannot miss visiting Belfast, the Titanic Museum. The official name is Titanic Belfast and is located where the ship itself was built. Let's take a visit back in time today.
Titanic Belfast
This tourist attraction opened its doors in 2012 in the old Harland & Wolff shipyard. Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. It rests on the banks of the River Lagan and towards the beginning of the XNUMXth century it was an important port city, very important in the Industrial Revolution.
The shipyards were very important, and Harland & Wolff He stood out among everyone. This company built the RSS Titanic and the SS Canberra, being the largest shipyard in the world. Today the place is the most famous ship museum in the world: a space of 12 thousand square meters which is managed by the Maritime Belfast Trust.
The old shipyard turned into a museum or cultural center It is located on Queen Island, a land area at the entrance to Belfast Lough, land reclaimed from the sea in the mid-XNUMXth century. With the problems in the activity, the area lost its shine and fell into abandonment. Many of the structures were demolished and those that remained, over time, took on another importance, such as the monstrous cranes.
In 2001 this part of Belfast was renamed Titanic Quarter and the reconstruction and regeneration stage began to turn it into a special park dedicated to science, with houses, hotels and attractions. In 2005 the decision to make a museum dedicated to the Titanic was announced and in 2012 it finally opened its doors.
Titanic Belfast, Titanic Museum
With the clear decision to build a Titanic museum was rebuilt Arrol Gantry, a huge steel structure that towered over the cranes and helped in the construction of the huge ships.
The ambitious project tried to emulate what the Guggenheim Museum had meant for the Spanish city of Bilbao: resurrection, regeneration. And it has achieved this because over the years the attraction has generated thousands and thousands of visits.
The museum has been designed to reflect the history of Belfast and its dockyards: 38 meters high that simulate the hull of a ship (the Titanic in real size), with an elegant and striking façade made up of 3 thousand aluminum plates.
The building It has eight floors, in total 12 thousand square meters: on the upper floor is the conference room and a reception and banquet space with capacity for 750 people. There is a reconstruction of the famous Titanic staircase, in the conference room, weighing about four tons.
In the front of the building is Titanica, a sculpture by Rowan Gillespie with a female form, made of bronze, representing hope and hospitality. Inside the museum there are nine galleries interpretive and interactive covering different topics.
The thematic axes of each gallery speak of the city at the time of the construction of the Titanic, el shipyard, the enormous structure called Arrol Gantry that helped in the construction of the Titanic and Olympic, the Launch of the Titanic, with photographs from that day, the Fit Out (boat conditioning), a scale model of the Titanic with the three classes dedicated to passengers, the maiden voyage (Belfast to Southampton trip) which was very bad, with original photos of the trip, the Sinking in 1912 and Aftermath, the legacy of that disaster. The last galleries are dedicated to Myths and legends and its sinking and subsequent discovery.
The best way to tour the museum is to make the call Titanic Experience, a self-guided tour that takes you through these nine galleries: the duration is between an hour and a half and two and a half hours and costs £24 per adult. There is another tour called Discovery Tours to know why and how the ship was built and what happened in its final hours. It is a shorter tour, one hour, with a headset, priced at £15 per adult.
Every year for Christmas there are special events, so if you go during those dates you can experience a christmas experiencea, but it seems to me that if you really like the Titanic it is best to go for the White Star Premium Pass that includes all three experiences for the same price. Three? The Titanic Experience includes a tour of the SS Nomadic, so added to the Discovery Tour there are three.
For adults, the pass includes a £10 voucher to visit the cafeteria, pastry shop or souvenir shop. And for children there is a Titanic Activity Pack. How much does the White Star Premium Pass cost? £51 per adult and £50 per child.
- White Star Premium Pass Adult: The Discovery Tour (self tour) + Titanic Experience + SS Nomadic + souvenir + 10 pound voucher, for 51, 50 pounds.
- White Star Premium Pass Children: The Discovery Tour + Titanic experience + SS Nomadic + souvenir + Titanic Activity, for £28.
Practical information about the Titanic Belfast
- Schedule: It has hours that vary depending on the season, opening between 9 and 10 am, closing between 3, 4, 5:30 or 6 pm.
- Home: per adult it costs 24 pounds and per child 95 pounds. The family pass for two adults and two children costs £11. People over 62 years old pay 60 euros, the same for students. You must purchase tickets in advance online, by phone or at the Belfast Welcome Center in Donegall Square. If you arrive around closing time you can get the late saver ticket cheaper, but the visit to the SS Nomadic is left out. He costs 18 pounds.
- Tours: The Discovery Tour costs £15 per adult and £10 per child. The White Star Premium pass costs £51 per adult and £50 per child.
- Location: 1, Olympic Way, Queens' Road, Titanic Quarter, Belfast. It is only half an hour by car from the international airport. It is located two and a half kilometers from the center of Belfast, a walk of just half an hour. You can get there by taxi or by train or bus. If you arrive from England or Scotland you can get to Belfast by ferry.