Museo di Storia Naturale

Museo di Storia Naturale stands in Milan’s lush Giardini di Porta Venezia, surrounded by greenery and city life. Its Neogothic design recalls London’s Natural History Museum. Giovanni Ceruti created the building between 1888 and 1893, with terracotta decorations, statues and pinnacles across the façade.

Giuseppe De Cristoforis and Giorgio Jan established the collections in 1838, before the institution opened to the public in 1844. The Second World War caused extensive damage. Reconstruction led to its reopening in 1952, while the restored façade emerged in 1956. Its history remains connected with Milan’s academic institutions, including the University of Milan.

Twenty-three exhibition halls spread across 5,500 square metres, presenting nearly three million specimens from natural history. Eighty-three dioramas show ecosystems ranging from tropical rainforests to Arctic tundra. Life-sized and original dinosaur remains include a reconstructed triceratops, an allosaurus skeleton and a griposaurus skeleton. A rare Tridacna gigas shell shares the collections with Scipionyx samniticus, the fossil known as “Ciro”.