Wonders of Creation
Photo by Alan Carville
Located just inside the entrance to Mdina, the National Museum of Natural History is a repository and showcase of Malta’s natural environment. Thousands of specimens of plants and animals found in the Maltese islands and other countries are arranged systematically, giving an overview of what can be found in the archipelago.
Malta’s indigenous flora and fauna are typical of the central Mediterranean. Many of the plants and animals found in the Maltese islands are also found in southern Sicily to which they have many affinities. However, one also finds species that are found in other parts of the Mediterranean region as well as a few that are indigenous to the Maltese islands.
The museum focuses mainly on the faunal aspects of natural sciences – current displays cover themes such as human evolution, insects, birds and habitats and marine ecosystems. The Geology and Palaeontology displays are of particular merit and are of both local and international interest. The museum also houses a reference library on natural sciences.
Housed in the impressive 18th century Magisterial Palace of Justice within the medieval walled city of Mdina, the original building served as the seat of the Università, or local Government. In the early 18th century, a new entrance to the city was constructed and the Portuguese Grand Master Antonio Manuel de Vilhena (1722-36) re-structured the building at personal expense and transformed it into the present palace. A bronze bust of the Grandmaster of the Order lies above the main door and Vilhena’s coat-of-arms are sculptured on the main gateway and inside the portico.
Vilhena Palace also served as a temporary hospital during the 1837’s cholera outbreak, as a sanatorium for British troops in 1860, and as a hospital for tuberculosis patients in the early twentieth century. In 1973 it was officially inaugurated as the National Museum of Natural History.
Recently, the museum’s display area has been enhanced and, on entering this area, one now finds several portraits of pioneers of Maltese natural sciences. This is followed by a section dedicated to Malta’s national bird, the blue rock thrush, and national plant, the Maltese centaury. Other halls are dedicated to geology and palaeontology, including displays on Malta’s rock formations and fossils. Of interest are the tusk of a pygmy elephant, the teeth of a pygmy hippopotamus and the lower jaw of a Maltese giant dormouse.
Along one of the corridors a series of geological maps and related sketches, including geological maps of Malta and Gozo, are on display. A further display area is dedicated to reptiles, which includes several local and exotic species of lizards, snakes and turtles.
In other parts of the museum, visitors can also walk through various dioramas of ecosystems, ranging from European woodland to African savannah, presenting various animals in their natural context, and depicting predator-prey relationships. The A. Caruana Gatto Hall includes a collection of shelled animals collected locally and overseas; these include local land, freshwater and marine snails, marine shells and octopuses. This collection includes a large flying squid which was washed ashore in 1989 at St. Paul’s Bay.
The section dedicated to insects has hundreds of specimens of butterflies, moths, beetles, dragonflies, bees and wasps, as well as a series of dioramas. In another hall there are scale models of Filfla, Fungus Rock, St. Paul’s islands and Comino, small islands on which one finds several species that have become adapted to isolation, including the various races of the endemic Maltese wall lizard.
The museum is open Monday to Sunday from 09.00 to 17.00 with the last admission at 16.30. All Heritage Malta museums are closed on 24, 25 and 31 December,
1 January and Good Friday.
Article by Heritage Malta