National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon, National museum of natural history and science in Santo António, Lisbon, Portugal

The National Museum of Natural History and Science occupies the former Polytechnic School building on Rua da Escola Politécnica, a classified Monument of Public Interest. Its sections cover the history of science, zoology, anthropology, mineralogy and palaeontology, and it shares the grounds with the Lisbon Botanical Garden, opened in 1878.

The collections began in the second half of the 18th century with the Royal Natural Cabinet and Botanical Garden in Ajuda. They moved to the Polytechnic School in 1858 and were named the National Museum of Lisbon in 1861. In 1911 the museum was attached to the new University of Lisbon's Faculty of Sciences, taking the name National Museum of Natural History in 1926. A fire on 18 March 1978 destroyed much of the Polytechnic building and most of the zoology collection.

The museum's art programme ran for 25 years in the Sala do Veado, and contemporary works are now shown in the former shop, atrium and laboratories, with artists such as Joana Vasconcelos, Jorge Molder and Ana Vidigal having exhibited here. Its anthropology holdings include about 1,700 human skeletons from Lisbon cemeteries, begun in 1981 by Luís Lopes.

The museum entrance is at Rua da Escola Politécnica 58, in the Santo António parish near Príncipe Real; the Botanical Garden is reached from the same grounds. The building is classified as a Monument of Public Interest. Several spaces are shared with the University of Lisbon, so check which galleries and gardens are open before setting out.

The 18 March 1978 fire began before dawn in prefabricated pavilions standing on what is now the museum's small garden, then destroyed much of the former Polytechnic School building, thousands of zoology specimens and part of the geology collections. The Faculty of Sciences subsequently moved to Campo Grande.