Facts and figures 

General information

• Surface area: about 5,400 m², of which 2890 m² is allocated to the exhibition area. The biggest parliamentary visitor's centre in Europe and the second in the world after the Capitol Hill in Washington.

• Language: the world's first permanent exhibition using 24 languages. All content is provided in these languages. Visitors receive portable personal multimedia guides, which at each installation display in-depth information and short films in the visitor's desired language. Sign language is provided in the following languages (English, French, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Flemish, Belgo-French, International sign language), as well as Braille tactile maps.

• Visitor numbers: 1,5 Mio visitors in the first 5 years

• Cost: about €20.5 million including planning and production costs for 23 languages (in total).

Comparisons:

• Musée Tintin: €15 million for a surface area of 3,500 m2

• Austrian Parliament visitors centre: €6 million for a surface area of 700 m2

• US Capitol Hill visitors center €421 million for a surface area of 53,800 m2

• Time taken to devise and complete the project: six years.

Decision to create the Centre: July 2005

Tender on Interior and Exhibition Design: spring 2007

Award of contract: January 2008

Inauguration: October 2011

• Exhibitions: Permanent and temporary exhibitions:"The making of" the Visitors Centre (14/10/2011 - 10/06/2012); Art@Europarl (16/08/2012 - 31/10/2012); The Sakharov Experience (15/11/2012 - 26/02/2013; "Europe from war to peace", the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Exhibition (16/05/2013 - 06/10/2013); Zoom In (06/11/2013 – 16/02 2014); European Election since 1979 (10/3 – 1/06 2014); Museum of Broken Relationships (16/06 – 17/10 2014), 'The family Meal –what brings us all together' (03/05 - 20/11/2015, Displaced – women refugees and asylum seekers (03/03 - 01/06/2016, Searching for beauty (08/07 - 18/09/2016,  EMEE – Eurovisions: Museums exhibiting Europe (24/09 - 05/10/2016); Lux Film Prize – 100 Shades of Light (11/10/2016 - 29 01/2017), 11 Women facing War (08/03 - 15/05 2017)

• Prizes: the  Parlamentarium has already won more than 10 prizes, for example the special tourism prize awarded by the Brussels tourism agency VisitBrussels, Art Directors Club of Europe Award in the "Environmental Design" category, the Austrian Innovation Award, the Sinus Award, the Art Directors Club Germany Award and the Red Dot Design Award. In 2013 it was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award 2013.

• General planning, concept, design of permanent exhibition:        German exhibition designers Atelier Brückner, winners of several prizes at national and international levels. In the last 25 years Atelier Brückner has designed the BMW Museum in Munich, the CERN visitors' centre in Geneva, the German Stock Exchange in Frankfurt and others.

• Planning, concept design of role-play game:   Media Farm, Norway. The role-play is based on highly successful projects in the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian parliaments, which attract tens of thousands of students annually.

• Media production : Markenfilm Crossing , Hamburg. Over 50 years of experience in film production and design of interactive and multimedia solutions, winner of awards in many international competitions.

• First concept: LORD Cultural Resources Planning & Management Ltd ., consultancy for museum planning and cultural heritage management, consultant to over 1,500 museums and visitor centres (including Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao), Tate Modern, Louvre).

• Graphic design (under the lead of Atelier Brückner):  the graphic studio integral ruedi baur developed a special graphic script for the Parlamentarium. Each graphic sign used is composed of several EU languages superimposed on each other to bring out the "united in diversity" concept. Some signs are based on all 23 languages.

• Interactivity:  the exhibition offers around 100 videos and approx. 300 multimedia installations.

• Multimedia production:  Markenfilm Crossing , Germany.   Markenfilm Crossing  is an award-winning media production with a strong interactive design and multimedia solutions department. Markenfilm Crossing is a division of     Markenfilm Group , Europe's leading commercial film production group, with over 50 years of experience.

Technical information

• Actors for the role-play: over 400 actors from 27 EU countries.

• People interviewed for the Daily Life section: 54 from 27 EU Member States.

• Number of Hot Spots in the 'United in Diversity' section:  90, each with a film about a different town / area of the EU Member States.

• Number of RFIDs in the 'United in Diversity' section: more than 600 built-in RFID tags.

• Number of screens: over 100 interactive terminals / screens and interactive projections.

• Number of LEDs on entrance: 595,968 LEDs: (97x 8 panels) x (256 pixels x 3)

• Number of photos: over 1,400.

• Length of cables: around 40 km.

• Interactive Floor Map: Europe Floor Map of 210m² with 90 interactive spots.

• 360 degree cinemas : 2 x 360 degree cinemas, each with about 150m² of projection area.

• Number of PMG provided: 700

• 3 D light installations: a) 3 D LED ceiling with ca. 13,000 LEDs on a surface of 42m² - largest in the world, b) 40 m long LED ring for European statistics with over 50,000 LEDs.

Practical information

• Opening days:  Open 7/7 (closed Monday morning). Closed on 1 January, 1 May, 1

November and 24, 25, 31 December.

• Opening hours: 59 hours per week

Monday 13.00 – 18.00

Tuesday to Friday 09.00 – 18.00

Saturday, Sunday 10.00 – 18.00

• Entrance fee: free of charge.

• Capacity: 630 people at any one time.

• Floor staff: approximately 20 positions at all times.

• Other facilities: free multimedia guide, cafeteria and shop with branded EP souvenirs.

• For children: content is offered for children in the various sections. It lasts about one hour in total. Children receive their own handheld media guides to use free of charge and can participate in two different games to discover the content (age groups 8-10 and 11-14 years old).

• Accessibility: wheelchair access is provided. Staff is on hand to provide assistance and a limited number of wheelchairs are available. If a wheelchair is needed, please send an email to Parlamentarium@europarl.europa.eu at least one day before arrival.

• For visually impaired visitors: the centre provides media guides with special audio files which describe the space, content and main features. Braille tactile maps are available in Dutch, English, French and German and Braille keyboards are available in two parts of the centre. Guide dogs are also permitted.

• For visitors with hearing difficulties:   portable media guides are equipped with sign language videos in English, French, Flemish, Belgo-French, German, Dutch, Hungarian and international sign language. . The centre is also fitted with induction loops.

• Address/contact:

Parlamentarium - The European Parliament's visitors' centre

European Parliament

Rue Wiertz 60 / Wiertzstraat 60

Willy Brandt building

B-1047 Brussels

Parlamentarium@europarl.europa.eu