Natural History Museum of the Porto University
Museums & Thematic Centres
The MHNC-UP is organized according to a bipolar structure, encompassing a core pole located in the facilities of the Historic Building of the Rectory of U.Porto, and another one, which includes the Hall of Biodiversity and Porto’s Botanical Garden.
The Core Pole of the Museum, which harbours its historical collections of geology, paleontology, zoology, archaeology and ethnography, botany (including U.Porto’s Herbarium PO) and science, is now undergoing en extensive refurbishment, hosting, since 2019 and while this process unfolds, temporary exhibitions. In turn, both the Hall of Biodiversity – Ciência Viva Center, and Porto’s Botanical Garden are completely open to the public.
The MHNC-UP’s conceptualization and restructuring project, developed in close collaboration with the Ciência Viva Agency, is the first in Portugal to foresee and come about as the result of the dialogue between a Museum and a Ciência Viva Center (CCV). Amidst the XXI century, this project will offer society a university museum with decades of history which reborn as a hybrid between a modern museum and a CCV, with clear goals in what concerns three fundamental lines of action: dissemination, communication and outreach, conservation and research. At the new MHNC-UP, envisioned according to an innovative philosophy based on the assumptions a total museology philosophy, we will tell stories about life, highlighting extraordinary objects and phenomena, as well as prominent figures in the history of the Museum and their pathways. All this, taking advantage of the most advanced museography and technological solutions.
The Core Pole of the Museum, which harbours its historical collections of geology, paleontology, zoology, archaeology and ethnography, botany (including U.Porto’s Herbarium PO) and science, is now undergoing en extensive refurbishment, hosting, since 2019 and while this process unfolds, temporary exhibitions. In turn, both the Hall of Biodiversity – Ciência Viva Center, and Porto’s Botanical Garden are completely open to the public.
The MHNC-UP’s conceptualization and restructuring project, developed in close collaboration with the Ciência Viva Agency, is the first in Portugal to foresee and come about as the result of the dialogue between a Museum and a Ciência Viva Center (CCV). Amidst the XXI century, this project will offer society a university museum with decades of history which reborn as a hybrid between a modern museum and a CCV, with clear goals in what concerns three fundamental lines of action: dissemination, communication and outreach, conservation and research. At the new MHNC-UP, envisioned according to an innovative philosophy based on the assumptions a total museology philosophy, we will tell stories about life, highlighting extraordinary objects and phenomena, as well as prominent figures in the history of the Museum and their pathways. All this, taking advantage of the most advanced museography and technological solutions.
