Milan Natural History Museum

About

In 1838 the nobleman Giuseppe de Cristoforis and the botanist Giorgio Jan donate their natural history collections to the city of Milan, and from that gift the museum takes shape. It opens to the public for the first time in 1844, later settling into a home within the Indro Montanelli Gardens; the present building goes up between 1888 and 1893, designed in the Neo-Gothic style by architect Giovanni Ceruti. The collection today runs to nearly three million specimens: more than 2.2 million insects, 66,500 vertebrates, 1.1 million invertebrates, 120,000 fossils, 80,000 minerals and rocks, 30,000 botanical specimens, and 10,000 each of wood samples and archaeological finds. Twenty-three exhibition halls spread across two floors and an attic, filling roughly 5,500 square meters. In 1943, an Anglo-American air raid tears apart the building's roofs and floors, and fire destroys a considerable share of its scientific holdings. The museum reopens in stages, partially in 1952 and fully in 1953, regaining the form it holds today.