Relaxing With Wax: Meet The Slovak 'Monsieur Tussaud'

Zavada, Slovakia, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Apr, 2019 ) :The bald head of Slovak general Milan Rastislav Stefanik is pierced before hairs are inserted into his skull. Stefanik's face remains motionless, his blue eyes do not even blink.

The late founder of the former Czechoslovakia is the latest figure to get the wax treatment from Roman Bajzik, a 48-year-old opera teacher who moonlights as Slovakia's very own Monsieur Tussaud.

"I began creating wax sculptures back in 2002 as I wanted to see what my great-grandfather looked like," Bajzik said, at his two-room gallery in what was once the family mill.

"I only had an old photo of him and was curious if I could turn him into something three-dimensional," he told AFP in Zavada, a central village of 600 residents, about 150 kilometres (around 90 miles) from the capital, Bratislava.

Two decades later, there are now 23 motionless family members, royalty, folklore characters and important figures for tourists and schoolchildren to view.

Figures on display past the creaky wooden front door at the mill-turned-gallery include the vampire Nosferatu, pope John Paul II and a mermaid from Slovak mythology.