Muséum d’histoire naturelle

The Museum, its size and its world-class collections owe their existence to Geneva scholars and naturalists who, over the centuries, have developed a passion for science.

The first natural history museum in Geneva, then called the Academic Museum, was officially inaugurated on March 9, 1820. As the collections continued to grow, those in charge had to find a suitable location for this development. On October 10, 1872, a new museum, with an area of ​​​​5000 m2, was inaugurated in one of the wings of the University at the Bastions. In 1966, a new building for the Museum, designed by architect Raymond Tschudin, opened on its current site in Malagnou.

The Geneva Museum of the History of Science was inaugurated in 1964 following the impetus given by a group of enthusiasts, the Association of the Museum and the Review of the History of Science. Villa Bartholoni houses the museum and its collections in the magnificent Parc de la Perle du Lac. Attached from its creation to the Museums of Art and History, the Museum of the History of Science became a subsidiary of the Museum in 2006 and has been fully integrated into its organization since 2015.