In the museum’s main original building – the Baroque Lesliehof in Raubergasse, Graz – visitors receive fascinating insights into the evolution of life, and the resulting diversity of nature. Looking back over hundreds of millions of years up to the challenges of the present, the new Natural History Museum shows the most interesting objects in a multi-disciplinary permanent exhibition, offering insights into the research work undertaken by the team of experts.
Both the buildings and the display rooms were completely renovated as part of the reconfiguration: access to the Natural History Museum is now through the Visitors’ Centre at the Joanneum Quarter. Rearranging the exhibition was sensitively handled by integrating them into the historical building substance; historically popular objects such as the Water Pine or the display mine, which many Styrians remember from earlier visits, have been restored and are on show again. Many rooms that were used as storage depots and offices over many decades are now accessible to visitors for the first time, enabling a larger exhibition area to be available.
The new layout of the Natural History Museum is a striking conclusion to the renovation and revamping wave of the Universalmuseum Joanneum. Over the last 20 years the collections and locations of the Joanneum have been fundamentally renewed.