Natural History Museum

At the back of the State Garden is the Natural History Museum, housed in a beautiful building that once served as the Colonial Council and later the General Council. This is the island's oldest museum and the first Natural History Museum in the Indian Ocean. It was founded in 1855 by Réunion's former governor, Louis Henri Hubert Delisle, but when it opened, the museum didn’t have a single object! The curators had to start from scratch, beginning by buying animal skins from South Africa. Then collectors and early taxidermists began offering rare stuffed birds from China and Malaysia. The city's mayor, Gustave Manès, made a generous donation of about 2,000 objects from Paris, and others quickly followed him. By inauguration day, the new museum assembled a respectable collection. Over the decades, this collection grew through expeditions and journeys to the four corners of the world, and by the end of the 19th century, the museum boasted an impressive array of more than 25,000 pieces. The institute even participated in the Universal Exhibition in Paris and the Colonial Exhibition in Marseille, winning several medals for its high-quality displays. Sadly, the devastating cyclones of 1945 and 1948 destroyed a significant portion of this precious collection, and after other incidents over the years, only half remained by 1990. Today's Natural History Museum of Saint-Denis houses more than 560,000 specimens, including 125,000 heritage objects. If you decide to visit, you'll discover Réunionese fauna including endemic birds that no longer exist. You'll also find fascinating collections dedicated to fauna from the other Mascarene Islands, and Malagasy animals that will capture your imagination.