Large beers, Bavarian comfort food and warm weather: Football fans in town for the 2024 Euro Championship will have a hard time escaping Munich’s world-famous beer gardens this summer.

But just as Germany is hitting fever pitch, Munich is opening its newest and perhaps most Instagram-friendly tourist attraction – a museum of optical illusions.

With impossibly real-looking spaces that play tricks in height and distance, mirrors that distort reality and a kaleidoscope that conveys the feeling of infinity, Munich’s Wow Museum – Room for Illusions will open on Saturday, June 29.

Centrally located at the city’s landmark mediaeval gateway Isartor, the museum covers about 500 square metres, divided into 15 experience rooms of optical illusions.

“Everyone can – and should even – take part,” says museum director Sophie-Charlotte Bombeck, pointing to how many of the illusions are designed for participation.

Based on a concept from a Zurich original, but not a copy, the Munich Wow Museum is one of a growing number of social media-friendly museums dedicated to optical illusions in cities around the world.

The museum takes a so-called edutainment approach and finds a playful way to teach visitors about how the brain tricks the eye.

“It’s an experience for young and old,” says the owner of both museums, Vanessa Kammermann, who points out how much places like these can teach us about our understanding of the concept of truth.

“In the coronavirus era, people argued a lot about right and wrong,” said the founder. With optical illusions, however, there is no right or wrong. “Everyone sees things differently and perceives illusions in a different way.”

The opening comes after Munich hosted fans from Germany, Scotland, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, Ukraine and Denmark for Euros matches, and as Dutch and Romanian fans are headed to the city for a round of 16 clash, before the city hosts a semi-final.

Anyone who enjoys the illusions museum should probably consider the Deutsches Museum, a world-renowned museum of science and technology, located on an island in the Isar River. There, 20,000 square metres of exhibition await you, so plan a bit more of your time to take it all in.