Esapolis, Natural history museum and insectarium in Padua, Italy.

Esapolis is an insectarium in Padua, created by the Province of Padua with the private initiative Butterfly Arc, covering 2,500 m². It occupies an early-1900s building that housed Italy's main silk station, still active. The three floors and rear garden hold live arthropods, an apiary section, a silk room with a Mediterranean aquarium of Pinna nobilis since 2009, and a collection of 2,200 cocoon samples.

The building dates from the early 1900s and housed the Reale Stazione Bacologica sperimentale, founded in 1871 by minister Luigi Luzzatti on the model of the Gorizia institute of 1869. Its first director, entomologist Enrico Verson, led it until 1919; in 1924 it moved to Brusegana under Luciano Pigorini. After merging with the Ascoli Piceno station, closed in 1958, it was restored with funds from the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo, the Veneto Region and the environment ministry. The Esapolis museum opened on 3 May 2008.

Mannequins dressed in medieval clothing stand in the garden behind the building, illustrating stages of silk processing for visitors. The museum also keeps a collection of 2,200 silkworm cocoons of different origins, and since 2009 a Mediterranean aquarium with Pinna nobilis specimens has been on the silk floor.

The exhibition halls are easy to navigate and feature specialized laboratory spaces where visitors can observe insects through microscopes. Wear comfortable shoes as you will move through multiple rooms to see the full collections.

The Padua collection holds 2,200 silkworm cocoons of different origins, kept from the former national bacological station. On the second floor, since 2009, a Mediterranean aquarium displays specimens of Pinna nobilis, the fan mussel, beside the silk rooms. Mannequins dressed in medieval clothes stand in the rear garden showing stages of silk working.