Museu Nacional de História Natural e Ciência da Universidade de Lisboa

The National Museum of Natural History and Science is actually composed of a number of different venues that belong to the University of Lisbon, specifically the Museum of Natural History and the Science (in the old buildings of the Polytechnic School), the adjacent Botanical Garden and the Astronomical Observatory (in Ajuda). The origin of these venues traces back to the second half of the 18th century. They were all in Ajuda but in 1858 the Royal Academy of Sciences was transferred to the Polytechnic School, where it has stayed to this day (except for the Observatory). But it was only in 1911, that the University of Lisbon attached the museums to its Faculty of Sciences and changed the name to what it is today. A fire in the late 1970's destroyed part of the old Polytechnic School, as well some of the collections. The Faculty of Sciences changed facilities since then. Picture © Museu Nacional de História Natural e Ciência