Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All Italy Bra Bra Museo Civico Craveri di Storia Naturale

Museo Civico Craveri di Storia Naturale

A collection of wonderfully preserved 19th-century creatures, as well as hunting trophies seized during a police raid.

Bra, Italy

Added By
Sandra Lang
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
CAPTION
Museo Civico “Craveri” di Storia Naturale.   Vololona / Atlas Obscura User
Museo Civico “Craveri” di Storia Naturale.   Vololona / Atlas Obscura User
Museo Civico “Craveri” di Storia Naturale.   Vololona / Atlas Obscura User
Museo Civico “Craveri” di Storia Naturale.   Vololona / Atlas Obscura User
Asiatic elephant and calf diorama   G.dallorto
Indian rhinoceros diorama   Bramfab
Hippo and waterbuck diorama   Bramfab
Diorama of Siberian tiger and Sika deer   Wolf Gang
Jaguar and peccary diorama   Wolf Gang
Diorama of Eurasian pine marten and red squirrel   Wolf Gang
Walrus and narwhal diorama   G.dallorto
Eurasian bison or wisent diorama   Bramfab
Yak diorama   Bruno Balestrini
Museo Civico “Craveri” di Storia Naturale.   Vololona / Atlas Obscura User
Elephant seal and emperor penguin diorama   Bruno Balestrini
Museo Civico “Craveri” di Storia Naturale.   Vololona / Atlas Obscura User
Museo Civico “Craveri” di Storia Naturale.   Vololona / Atlas Obscura User
African lion and Cape buffalo diorama   Wolf Gang
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

The piedmont town of Bra, Italy, houses an intriguing natural history museum. As a "museum of the museum," the institution plays witness to the museological concepts of earlier times and the practices and circumstances of scientific collections of the 19th century.

You won’t find large-scale wildlife dioramas here. Instead, you’ll venture through several educational rooms dedicated to various life forms or geological topics such as fossils, reptiles, fish, amphibia, birds, minerals, and all kinds of invertebrates. Each of the 12 rooms is individually designed with taxidermy animals, educational models, historical sources, pictures, and related objects.

The bird hall is the highlight of the exhibition. It hosts a vast collection of taxidermy birds that are typically 150 to 180 years old and incredibly well-preserved. The oldest taxidermy bird is an almost 200-year-old pheasant that exists as a remarkable testament to evolution, as it showcases different plumage than the colors and patterns you’d expect to find on a present-day pheasant.

The taxidermy mammals play an interesting role in the exhibition. Since they don’t have a room for their own, they are posed as guests inside the other halls. Moreover, none of the tigers, ibexes, antelopes, or wolves belonged to the original exhibition—they were seized as illegal hunting trophies during a police razzia from a local criminal around 15 years ago.

The original collections were curated by Italian lawyer and scholar Angelo Craveri, a polymath who discovered several kinds of living and fossilized animal species that have since been named after him. He and his sons Ettore and Federico opened a private museum in 1843.

The whole Craveri family consisted of passionate zoologists who continued to add to the collection. Federico contributed a lot of fossils, minerals, and animals from North America, since he worked as a geologist for different mining companies in Mexico and supported the country in the Mexican–American War. The family’s private collection grew so much that they had to add a third floor to their house.

Related Tags

Taxidermy Museums Museums And Collections Natural History Museums Animals Birds

Know Before You Go

The museum is open from Monday through Thursday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m, and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. It's closed on Friday and Saturday. Brochures and information are available in English.

Atlas Obscura Adventures

Flavors of Italy: Roman Carbonara, Florentine Steak & Venetian Cocktails

Savor local cuisine across Rome, Florence & Venice.

Book Now

Community Contributors

Added By

Vololona

Edited By

Monsieur Mictlan

  • Monsieur Mictlan

Published

January 7, 2019

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • https://www.piemonteitalia.eu/en/cultura/musei/museo-civico-craveri-di-storia-naturale
Museo Civico Craveri di Storia Naturale
20 Via Craveri
Bra
Italy
44.701073, 7.851984
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Cappella Delle Brunate (Barolo Chapel)

La Morra, Italy

miles away

Barolo Wine Museum

Barolo, Italy

miles away

Giardini del Belvedere

Piazza, Italy

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Italy

Italy

Europe

Places 1,054
Stories 110

Nearby Places

Cappella Delle Brunate (Barolo Chapel)

La Morra, Italy

miles away

Barolo Wine Museum

Barolo, Italy

miles away

Giardini del Belvedere

Piazza, Italy

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Italy

Italy

Europe

Places 1,054
Stories 110

Related Places

  • A taxidermy hippo.

    Tervuren, Belgium

    Royal Museum for Central Africa Natural History Collections

    A fascinating and enormous collection of natural history exhibits stained by a dark colonial legacy.

  • The showcases.

    Bamberg, Germany

    Bird Hall of Bamberg Natural History Museum

    A beautiful collection of taxidermy birds and rare pomological wax models.

  • One of the museum’s dioramas of animals staged in their natural habitats.

    Birchington-on-Sea, England

    Powell-Cotton Dioramas

    An English explorer's vast natural history collection has the first realistic dioramas of animals staged in their natural habitats.

  • Florence, Italy

    La Specola Zoological Museum

    An incredible menagerie of more than 3 million taxidermied animals at the oldest science museum in Europe.

  • Maputo Natural History Museum

    Maputo, Mozambique

    Maputo Natural History Museum

    From neon green watering holes to bleached elephant foetuses, this Mozambique museum makes natural history weird.

  • Rhesus monkey skull at the Booth Museum

    Brighton, England

    The Booth Museum of Natural History

    The natural history museum displaying the British bird collections and dioramas of Edward Booth, free of charge.

  • A Nicobar Tree Shrew in the Grant Museum of Zoology

    London, England

    Grant Museum of Zoology

    The only university zoological museum in London houses extinct animals, bizarre natural history specimens, and a Micrarium of microscopic creatures.

  • Museum für Naturkunde

    Berlin, Germany

    Museum für Naturkunde

    Berlin's natural history museum houses the world's largest mounted dinosaur and the late beloved polar bear Knut.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.