Croatian Natural History Museum

Croatian Natural History Museum

Hrvatski prirodoslovni muzej
Entrance to the Croatian Natural History Museum
Former name	National Museum
Established	9 October 1846 (1846-10-09)
Location	Demetrova 1, Zagreb, Croatia
Coordinates	45°49′02″N 15°58′20″E / 45.817115°N 15.972314°E / 45.817115; 15.972314
Type	Natural history museum
Accreditation	Croatian Museum Council
Key holdings	Krapina remains (Neanderthal)
Collections	Botanical Geological-palaeontological Mineralogical-petrographic Zoological
Collection size	2 million objects
Visitors	12,370 (2017)[1]
Director	Tatjana Vlahović
Website	hpm.hr

The Croatian Natural History Museum (Croatian: Hrvatski prirodoslovni muzej) is the oldest and biggest natural history museum and the main body for natural history research, preservation and collection in Croatia.^[2] Located on Dimitrije Demeter Street in Gornji Grad, one of the oldest neighbourhoods of the Croatian capital Zagreb, it owns one of the biggest museum collections in Croatia, with over 2 million artefacts, including over 1.1 million animal specimens. It was founded in 1846 as the "National Museum". The National Museum was later split up into five museums, three of which were in 1986 merged as departments of the newly named Croatian Natural History Museum. The museum contains a large scientific library open to the public, and publishes the first Croatian natural history scientific journal, Natura Croatica.

The permanent display of the Croatian Natural History Museum consists of mineralogical, petrographical and zoological collections, as well as two permanent exhibits in the atrium: the Rock Map of Croatia and the Geological Pole. It is home to the remains of the Neanderthal from Krapina. As of 2021, the museum is closed pending the completion of reconstruction following the 2020 Zagreb earthquake.