Natural Science Museum of Valencia facts for kids
| Museo de Ciencias Naturales | |
Exterior of the Natural Science Museum.
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| Established | 1999 |
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| Location | Avenida del General Elío, s/n (Jardins del Real), Valencia, Spain. |
The Natural Science Museum of Valencia in Spain is a cool place to explore! It's located in the beautiful Jardines del Real (Royal Gardens). This museum is full of amazing fossils and exhibits about nature.
Contents
Museum History
The Natural Science Museum of Valencia started a long time ago. It began as the Palaeontological Municipal Museum in 1889. This first museum was in an old convent building.
A Special Donation
The museum was created thanks to a generous gift from an engineer named José Rodrigo Botet. He was born in Manises in 1842. José Rodrigo Botet moved to Argentina in 1875. There, he worked on big engineering projects. He even helped design the city of La Plata.
In 1889, he brought his huge collection of fossils back to Valencia. It was a very exciting event! A special train carried the valuable fossils to the city.
The Amazing Collection
His collection included many mammal fossils from the Quaternary period. This is a time in Earth's history that includes the Ice Ages. The most famous fossil was a human skeleton called Samborombón. This skeleton caused many scientific discussions back then.
José Rodrigo Botet was helped by Enrique De Carles. Enrique was a fossil collector from the Museum of Buenos Aires. He helped set up the skeletons. The collection moved a few times in its early years.
New Homes for the Museum
In 1904, José Rodrigo Botet passed away. Eduardo Boscá Casanoves became the first director of the museum. He was a senior gardener at the Botanical Garden. He believed in evolution and continued the work of setting up the skeletons.
In 1902, the city wanted to show the collection to everyone. They planned a new building for it. This building was going to be called the Valencian Palace of Natural Sciences. But it was never built because there wasn't enough money.
Instead, the collection moved to the Almodí building. This was an old corn exchange from the 14th century. It was right in the center of Valencia. The museum officially opened there in 1908.
Growing the Collection
In 1924, Eduardo Boscá Casanoves died. Francisco Beltrán Bigorra took over as director. He added even more to the museum's collections. A huge collection of shells (called a malacological collection) was donated in 1925.
The museum stayed at the Almodí building for many years. But in 1989, heavy rains damaged the building. It was unsafe, so the collection had to move again. This was a huge move, one of the biggest in Europe since World War II!
The fossils were moved to the ground floor of the town hall. It opened there in 1991. Then, in 1996, the city decided to create the current Natural Science Museum. It would be in a renovated building.
Finally, in 1999, the modern Museum of Natural Sciences of Valencia opened. It's in the same spot where the city first dreamed of building a science palace long ago!
Museum Building
The building where the Natural Science Museum is now was once a fancy restaurant. It was built in the late 1950s. The architect, Luis Gay, designed it. His work was inspired by another famous architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The building is considered special and is a protected historical site.
Amazing Collections
The museum has incredible collections!
Rodrigo Botet's Fossil Collection
José Rodrigo Botet's collection is one of the best in Europe. It has fossils from the Pleistocene period in South America. This collection includes twenty full skeletons and over five thousand bones! These bones belong to more than twenty different types of mammals.
Museum Galleries
The museum has many exciting rooms to explore. Here are some of them:
- Science and Technology: This room shows the history of science. You can see Valencia's first electronic microscope here! It also has a cool recreation of a 19th-century science lab.
- Biodiversity: Learn all about the different plants and animals that live in Valencia. You can even take a virtual tour of natural places like El Saler.
- Origin of Life: Discover how life began on Earth in the Paleozoic era.
- Rodrigo Botet Paleontological Collection: This is where you'll find the most amazing fossils! The star of the museum is here: a complete skeleton of a six-meter-long Megatherium. This was a giant ground sloth! You can also see skeletons of a huge bear, a saber-toothed tiger (Smilodon populator), and giant armadillos. Some of these armadillos include an Eutatus seguini, a Neosclerocalyptus, and a Glyptodon clavipes. Did you know that Charles Darwin mentioned some of these fossils in his famous book, On the Origin of Species? This made the collection very famous!
- Mesozoic and Cenozoic: Travel through time to the eras of dinosaurs and beyond!
- Dinosaurs of the Valencian Community: See fossils of dinosaurs that once lived right here in Valencia.
- Sites of the Valencian Continental Neogene: This room features a 5-million-year-old skull of a Metaxytherium. This animal was an ancient relative of today's dugongs. It was found in Pilar de la Horadada.
- Malacology: Check out a fascinating collection of mollusk shells. This part of the museum comes from a donation made in 1925.
- Ecosystems and City Birds: Learn about the different natural environments around Valencia. You can also discover the birds that live in the city.
- Beekeeping: Find out all about bees and how they make honey!
- Temporary Exhibitions: The museum often has special exhibits that change over time.
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Images for kids
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Exterior of the Natural Science Museum.
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Inside view of the Museum. The Megaterio in the center of the room.
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Eutatus skeleton in the Museum of Natural Sciences of Valencia.
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Skeleton of Allosaurus fragilis in the Museum of Natural Sciences of Valencia.
See also
In Spanish: Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Valencia para niños
