The Micropia ‘zoo’ in Amsterdam, which focuses on microbes and molds, has been named most innovative museum of the year at the European Museum Awards in Spain.

Micropia is a ‘unique and original museum’ with an ‘elegant and engaging exhibition’, the jury said in its review.

The exhibits include a Kiss-O-Meter which measures how many microbes are shared between two people as they kiss, massive projections of microbes moving around and walls of agar dishes growing bacteria found on tooth brushes and between toes.

Micropia is situated within the Artis zoo complex and opened in 2014.

Two other Dutch museums were nominated for a European prize: DOMunder in Utrecht and the National Military Museum of the Netherlands in Soest.