Museo di Storia Naturale del Mediterraneo, Natural history museum in Livorno, Italy.
The Natural History Museum of the Mediterranean occupies an 18th-century villa and displays collections about marine diversity and coastal ecosystems. The exhibits cover marine biology, invertebrate species, and anthropological aspects of the Mediterranean region.
The museum was founded in 1929 when naturalists gathered scientific equipment and collections to preserve knowledge about the Mediterranean region. This founding collection was built from material derived from earlier local scientific institutions.
The villa's name recalls George Henderson, whose British family had lived in Livorno since the late 18th century and who owned the property from 1917 until his death in 1934. The garden keeps its late-18th-century English layout, with a hexagonal fountain, a small three-arched stone grotto and a centuries-old pine at the entrance. The library holds about 5,000 volumes and over 400 journals, consultable by appointment.
The museum is in Villa Henderson, a short walk from the Museo civico Giovanni Fattori. It is served by Autolinee Toscane buses stopping in via Roma or piazza Matteotti. The historic library, some 5,000 volumes and over 400 journals, is open to the public by appointment.
The whale pavilion was built specifically to display a fin whale found at Piombino in 1990, and its architecture echoes the animal's shape. Nearby, the garden keeps its late-18th-century English layout, with a hexagonal fountain, a small three-arched stone grotto and a centuries-old pine at the entrance.
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