The Leonardo da Vinci exhibition looks like being the most popular ever staged at the Swiss national museum in Zurich. It attracted 30,000 visitors in its first month - a new record.

The museum authorities have decided to extend the exhibition's evening opening hours, in anticipation of an even greater influx of visitors before it ends on January 7. The museum will also be open over Christmas and New Year.

Since it began a world tour five years ago in Germany, the exhibition has been seen by over three million people. It shows the many different facets of one of the most remarkable figures of the Renaissance, who was a painter, sculptor, architect and scientist.

The 250 models, sculptures, sketches and paintings reveal da Vinci as much more than the creator of the Mona Lisa.

His numerous inventions included a flying device equipped with the first navigating mechanism in aviation history.

As the exhibition shows, da Vinci is also credited with the invention of the helicopter. He was the first to design a craft that was able to rise in the air with the aid of a revolving rotor on a vertical axis. The spiral propeller was mounted on board the flying machine.

swissinfo with agencies

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