Institution history

In 1893 the Municipal Museum (Museo Civico), in which the natural science colections were stored, was opened. Alongside with the collection on localities, most of the holdings were obtained through donations. The most dedicated donors were sea captains, but also numerous citizens. Tomaso Gelletich should be singled out, for his legacy enabled the purchase of numerous natural science collections and making of the furniture for specific purposes.

In 1945, after World War II, Mario Rossi overtook the initiative regarding the founding of the Natural History Museum. He also collected many natural science collections from various premises in Rijeka. He was appointed as manager of the building in which the Museum is still situated today by the municipal authorities of that time.

By extracting the natural science collections from the Municipal Museum and merging them with private collections, school collections and donations, the Natural History Museum, aquarium and ZOO were opened in Rijeka in 1946.

The first decade of the Museum operation was characterized by the effort made to obtain materials, which were mainly given, bought off or exchanged, be it preparated or live organisms. Affinities were directed towards maintenance of the ZOO and aquarium.

Activity:

The Museum activity is oriented towards the sea research, and the narrow specialisms of the curators have been defined: curator ichtyologist (Gobidae), malacologist (Bivalvia), carcinologist (Decapoda) and curator paleontologist specialized for Eocene fauna.

Archive:

The permanent display of the Rijeka Natural History Museum contains the following collections: Metodology of oceanograpfhic research, Geological history of the Adriartic, Geology of the Rijeka region, Systematics of minerals, Sea invertebrate, Sharks and rays, osteichthyes and sea invertebrate, Multimedia centre – aquarium, and Reptiles and amphibians of the Rijeka region. The permanent display collection Insects of the Rijeka region and the Botanical garden are currently under construction.

Services:

Providing technical assistance activities in the areas of museums, lectures the exercise of professional leadership, providing information services related to the museum activity, the organization of exhibitions, publishing of professional publications.