Institute of Zoology, University of Wrocław

At Sienkiewicza 21 in Wrocław's Old Town stands the brick building of the former Institute of Zoology, erected in 1902 and today entered in the heritage register. It houses the Natural History Museum of the University of Wrocław, one of the units of the university's Faculty of Biological Sciences, founded back in 1814 on the initiative of professor Johann Ludwig Christian Gravenhorst, the institution's first director.

Millions of specimens in one building

The museum's collections number around 2.5 million animal specimens and half a million plant specimens, though only part of the collection is shown in the exhibitions: 3,140 zoological and 600 botanical exhibits. Part of the collection is lent to other research institutions, with the exception of holotypes, that is specimens that serve as the reference standard for the description of a given species. The museum holds the highest scientific category in the classification of national research units.

Four permanent exhibitions

A visit covers four permanent exhibitions: "The Animal World", "The Plant World", "The Skeletal System of Vertebrates" and "Insects and Man". Among the exhibits, skeletons of animals that no longer exist on Earth or that died out in historical times stand out.

The Irish elk, the thylacine and the whale

One of the most recognisable exhibits is the skeleton of the giant deer, an extinct species also known as the Irish elk, with a shoulder height reaching up to two metres ten centimetres. Next to it is displayed the skeleton of the thylacine, that is the Tasmanian tiger, the last large carnivorous marsupial of modern times. The museum also has Poland's only skeleton of a blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived on Earth, and the skull of an aurochs, the best preserved in the country, a reminder of the cattle species that in the times of the Jagiellonian and Vasa dynasties only the king was allowed to hunt.

The Museum of Man is a separate institution

In the same university building there is a separate Museum of Man with an anthropological exhibition, which is not part of the Natural History Museum and has its own admission ticket. Buying a ticket to the Natural History Museum gives access only to the zoological, botanical and osteological collections described above.

Practical information

• Address: Henryka Sienkiewicza 21 street, Wrocław, Old Town district.
• Hours: closed on Mondays, Tuesday to Friday 9:00-16:30, weekends 10:00-17:30; at busier times, earlier booking for organised groups is recommended.
• Close to the Botanical Garden of the University of Wrocław and Ostrów Tumski, so the visit is easy to combine with the rest of the old town.
• It's worth checking the hours on the museum's website before visiting, as they may change over holiday periods.