Museum of natural History

The Toulouse Natural History Museum was closed for ten years while it underwent a comprehensive refurbishment before reopening in 2008, 150 years after it was first established. Its goal is to be a knowledge-sharing institution that teaches its unique perspective while inspiring wonder and delight in visitors. It has been reorganized to represent the interaction between nature, man, and the environment.

The Toulouse Natural History Museum, which was awarded the Musée de France distinction, has naturalist and ethnological exhibits, impressive collections, 2.5 million items, as well as living environments that guests can explore in the Museum gardens and in the Henri Gaussen Botanical Gardens, which are 3 hectares in size.

The Toulouse Natural History Museum conforms with the ICOM code of ethics about collecting samples from the environment and using the least amount of energy and pollutants possible throughout its operations. The Museum's structures are a beautiful illustration of HEQ-compliant construction. The City of Toulouse is home to the Museum. Since 2008, it has welcomed 320,000 visitors.

Things to see:

Natural history collections from geology, paleontology, anthropology, botany, and zoology are preserved at the museum.

The majority of the ancient and contemporary human remains found in anthropology collections are fragments of bones, often mummified or preserved in liquids.

Herbaria make up the majority of the botanical collection. The one written by Philippe Picot de Lapeyrouse is the most notable of the various varieties. A few others are also rather fascinating, such as those of Jacques Gamisans, Ernest Jeanbernat, Jean-Baptiste Noulet, Armand Peyre, and Adrien Lagrèze-Fossat. Less specimens are contained in the wood library and the seed and dry fruit library, which also includes Adrien Lagrèze-collection Fossat's bottled fruit and seeds.

The collections of Frizac et Lassus, Alexandre Leymerie, Henri Magnan, and Nérée Boubée, to name a few, can be found in the geology area. The collections of Gaston de Roquemaurel, Marius Bernès, the Laurion Mines, a minor marble collection from the Pyrenees and the Black Mountains, as well as a few meteorites, all contain notable specimens from China, Chile, Adélie Land, and the Pacific.

These collections also include displays of well-known locations such as Issel, Les Phosphorites du Quercy, Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, Grépiac, La Débruge, or Armissan. The Montréal-du-Gers site, which is owned by the city of Toulouse and was founded in 1987, is currently being mined, and the Miocene vertebrate collections are being continuously enriched.