Description of the attraction
The National Museum of Natural History is an entertaining museum in Luxembourg City. The museum is located on the east bank of the Alzette River in the Grund quarter near the Neumünster Abbey.
In 1850, on the initiative of the incumbent Governor of Luxembourg, Prince Henry, the Society of Natural Sciences was founded. Soon, part of the premises in the city Ateneum was provided at the disposal of the society, and it was here in 1854 that the first exposition of the Natural History Museum was presented to the general public. Nearly four decades later, the museum moved to the building that used to house Vauban's barracks.
In 1922, the Government of Luxembourg decided to create a "Rijksmuseum" and purchased a mansion on Marché-aux-Poisson. The new museum was to be home to both the collection of the Natural History Museum and the collection of antiquities, the collection of which was begun by the Society for the Study and Preservation of Monuments of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg back in 1845. The renovation work took many years, and during this time the collections were inaccessible to the public. By 1940, the work was almost completed, but due to the invasion of German troops, the museum was never opened until 1946.
In 1988, the Rijksmuseum was divided into two separate administrative units - the Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of History and Art, and in 1990 the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies decided to restore and transfer to the Natural History Museum the complex of buildings of the former hospice Saint-Jean. The official opening of the museum took place in June 1996.
The excellent collection of the museum acquaints its guests in detail with such natural sciences as botany, ecology, geology and mineralogy, geophysics and astrophysics, paleontology, as well as zoology of vertebrates and invertebrates. For convenience and better perception of information, the museum's exposition is divided into thematic sections.
The Natural History Museum hosts various temporary exhibitions, as well as specialized lectures and seminars on a regular basis. The museum administration pays special attention to general education programs for schoolchildren. The museum is engaged in research activities.
