Slovenian Museum of Natural History

Along with the National Museum of Slovenia (which is located in the same building), the Museum of Natural History of Slovenia is Slovenia’s oldest cultural and scientific institution, originating as the Provincial Museum of Carniola, which was established in 1821 and became the National Museum in 1921. In 1944 the national history collections of the National Museum were separated to become the Museum of Natural Sciences. The museum was renamed Museum of Natural History of Slovenia in 1992.

With its important geological-palaeontological, botanical and geological collections, the Museum of Natural History of Slovenia functions as both a research institution (terrain work on study collections) and as a showroom for national, European and worldwide collections which demonstrate changes in biodiversity, the development of natural history thought and the different techniques of collection and preparation of samples.

The Museum's geological-palaeontologic collections include fossils from various Slovene sites, including an almost complete c 20,000 year-old mammoth skeleton found at Nevlje near Kamnik. Also of significance are a c 210 million year-old 84 centimetre-long fish skeleton found in the Triglav Mountains and a Miocene-era baleen whale skeleton found in Slovenske Gorice.

One of the museum’s founding collections was Baron Sigmund Zois's mineral collection. Minerals are classified by modern methods according to their internal structure, and among them is the mineral zoisite, named after Zois. There are also two Biedermaier wooden tables that are covered by tiles from Palnstorf's collection of minerals and rocks.

Hohenwart's collection of mollusc shells comprises about 5,000 specimens, dating from 1831 and originating mainly from the Indo-Pacific. The insect collection of Ferdinand J Schmidt includes several interesting specimens, noteably the ‘narrow-necked’ blind cave beetles (leptodirus hochenwartii) that were described in 1831 as the first cave insect. The plants and animals of the mountains, marshes, and woods are shown in specialised dioramas. Also on view are permanent bird, reptile, fish, mammal and skeleton collections.

Temporary exhibitions are staged regularly; past exhibitions have included 'Hidden Treasures of Macedonia', 'The Mammoth in Herman’s Den', 'Slovene Nature', 'Istria and Carst', 'Diversity of Minerals' and 'Snakes – Why are We Afraid of Them?'.

The Museum is currently participating in various research programmes in co-operation with overseas institutions such as the National Museum Prague, Prirodonaučen muzej na Makedonija, Natural History Museum in London, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien and the Natural History Museum of the Netherlands, as well as in bilateral co-operation with museums in Prague and Croatia.

In recent years the Museum has organised a European hemipterologic congress in Fiesa and has participated in the 'Role and Importance of Natural History Museums and Natural History Collections for Sustainable Development', symposium in Rijeka, Croatia. The museum is currently involved in the European BioCASE project and in the European Union for Bird Ringing (EURING).

The Museum of Natural History of Slovenia has its own library:

Slovenian Museum of Natural History

See also

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