Civic Museum of Natural History

The Museum of Natural History is housed in a neo-Romanesque-style building specially built between 1888 and 1893 to a design by architect Giovanni Ceruti (1842-1907) within the Public Gardens of Porta Venezia.

The Museum of Natural History is the oldest civic museum in Milan and is now the center of activities of the Science Garden, which includes two large educational laboratories, Paleolab and Biolab, and the Ulrico Hoepli Civic Planetarium.

On May 7, 1838, the donation of the collections of Milanese nobleman Giuseppe De Cristoforis and botanist Giorgio Jan, which include samples of mineralogy, paleontology, zoology, botany, as well as instruments and books, was officially accepted by the municipal authority; this was the first nucleus of the nascent Museum of Natural History in Milan.

In 2010, the Museum of Natural History, the Aquarium and the Planetarium, while each maintaining its own specificity, were administratively united within the Science Museum Cluster. 

Map: Civic Museum of Natural History