Ingresso Museo di Storia Naturale

Palazzo Pompei, home of the Civic Museum of Natural History of Verona, is one of the most important buildings from a historical and architectural point of view in the city.

Commissioned by the wealthy Lavezzola family between 1530 and 1550 from the brilliant architect Michele Sanmicheli, it later became the property of the Pompei family, and in 1833 Count Alessandro Pompei donated it to the Municipality of Verona to host exhibitions, art collections, and scientifically significant collections of great prestige and importance for the city.
The original core of the palace was expanded, starting in 1858, with the gradual annexation of adjacent spaces and houses. In the spacious rooms of the palace today are placed sixteen exhibition rooms, the library, laboratories, collection storage, and the Museum’s offices.

The Museum of Natural History of Verona hosts scientific sections dedicated to the study of minerals and rocks, paleontology, and zoology. The sections on prehistory and botany are housed in the Command Pavilion of the Austrian Arsenal of Verona. Currently (September 2023), the offices have been temporarily relocated to the main headquarters of Palazzo Pompei, at Lungadige Porta Vittoria 9. The scientific material collected by the museum's researchers and many naturalists over nearly five centuries is today meticulously prepared and cataloged, studied, and then preserved in the collections or displayed to the public in the exhibition rooms.

The Museum therefore plays a central and decisive role in scientific research and the publication of essays and popular texts. The educational and communication section is also very active with the aim of promoting naturalistic culture among various groups of the public (schools, adults, families, associations, etc.).