Jerusalem Nature Museum, Natural history museum in German Colony, Jerusalem, Israel

The Jerusalem Nature Museum is a natural history museum housed in a 19th-century stone building with ornamental iron gates located in the German Colony neighborhood. Exhibits present regional plants, animals, and rocks along with information about how they interact in local ecosystems.

The house was built in the 19th century by Lazarus Paul Margharian, a wealthy Armenian businessman, as a summer villa outside Jerusalem's Old City walls. In the early 20th century it passed to the Ottoman authorities and served as the residence of the city's Turkish governor. After World War I it briefly became the British governor's residence and later a British officers' club. The nature museum opened to the public in 1962.

The building appears as "Villa Décan" on late Ottoman maps, and a 1906 report in the newspaper HaShkafa describes a lavish celebration in its courtyard for the Sultan's thirtieth jubilee. The museum opened to the public in 1962. In the garden, a small petting corner with waterfowl and rodents is tended by volunteers and neighbourhood children and is open only by prior arrangement.

The museum sits at 6 Mohliver Street, next to the German Colony, and the building is surrounded by a large community garden with a plant nursery, fish ponds and wooden play equipment for children. The garden's small animal corner, on its north-eastern side, holds waterfowl, rodents and a few reptiles, and it opens only by prior arrangement. The museum was closed for renovation from late 2025 and is expected to reopen at the end of 2026.

The Syrian brown bear on display was captured by hunters in the early 20th century and later donated to the museum; the species disappeared from the region after the last individual was shot near the Sea of Galilee during World War I. The lion and lioness were hunted in Africa, mounted, and given to mayor Teddy Kollek by Ugandan ruler Idi Amin in the 1970s, honoring Jerusalem's lion emblem.