Turin Museum of Natural History, Natural history museum in Central Turin, Italy.
The Turin Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum set in a 17th-century building in central Turin, formerly used as the San Giovanni Battista Hospital. It holds collections covering zoology, entomology, botany, mineralogy, geology, and paleontology.
The museum was founded in 1978, when scientific collections from the University of Turin that had been scattered across different locations were brought together under one roof. These included zoological specimens and comparative anatomy materials built up over many decades.
The collections cover zoology, botany, mineralogy, and paleontology, showing the natural variety of Italy and Piedmont in particular. Visitors can look closely at fossils, rocks, and preserved animals displayed across the exhibition rooms.
The museum sits in central Turin and is within walking distance of most city landmarks, open every day except Tuesdays. It is worth setting aside a good stretch of time, as the collections span several rooms.
The museum displays a mastodon model about 7 meters long, assembled from fossils found in the Villafranca d'Asti area near Turin. This find shows that the plains of Piedmont were once home to relatives of elephants in prehistoric times.
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