Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano

Established in 1838, the museum offers extensive exhibits on minerals, fossils, animals, and human evolution, featuring over 100 dioramas.

Planning your visit

Milan's natural history museum was founded in 1838 and is among the oldest and largest in Italy, occupying a neo-Romanesque building in the Giardini Pubblici that was heavily bombed in 1943 and rebuilt.

The dioramas are its signature — over 100 of them, built through the twentieth century, showing habitats and species groups in painted settings with a craftsmanship that has largely disappeared from modern museum practice. They are period pieces as much as scientific displays, and increasingly valued as such.

The mineralogy collection is substantial, the palaeontology includes dinosaur material and a notable Italian specimen, and the human evolution section covers the fossil record.

It works well with children and is considerably cheaper than most Milan attractions, in a city where the major sights are expensive and heavily booked.

The public gardens around it are among central Milan's better green spaces. Allow two hours. Bookable options include entry with audio guide. Current availability is listed below.