Goulandris Natural History Museum, Natural history museum in Kifisia, Greece.
The Goulandris Natural History Museum occupies a neoclassical building of 1875 at Levidou 13 in Kifisia, founded as the Angelos and Niki Goulandris Botanical Museum before widening its scope to zoology, palaeontology and geology. Its exhibition rooms present the flora, fauna and geological wealth of Greece, alongside research departments, laboratories and a botanical collection of over 200,000 specimens.
The museum was founded in 1965 by Angelos and Niki Goulandris, who chose a neoclassical mansion built in 1875 as its home, converting a former private residence into a research and exhibition space. Over the following decades, it grew into one of the leading natural science institutions in Greece.
The museum takes its name from the Goulandris family, who founded it and continue to support it. The displays show animals, plants, and rocks from across Greece, giving visitors a direct encounter with the country's natural world.
The museum sits in Kifisia, which is well connected to central Athens by metro line 1. Opening hours differ on weekdays and weekends, so it is worth checking before you go.
The museum's herbarium holds more than 200,000 plant specimens, many of them collected through the institution's own field expeditions across Greece. Some of these plants were first described by the museum's own researchers, adding new species to the scientific record.
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