National Museum of Ireland, Merrion Street

This guide to Dublin's National Museum, Merrion Street, opens in 1857 with explorer David Livingstone addressing a packed crowd in the brand-new hall, then traces how its Victorian cabinets of stuffed animals and skeletons have sat almost untouched ever since, earning it the nickname the Dead Zoo. It turns to the upper balconies, roped off from visitors, and a July morning in 2007 when a century-and-a-half-old staircase gave way beneath a group of teachers training in a back stairwell.