Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Museum of Natural History of Bourges originates in an exhibition inaugurated on June 24, 1926 at the Palais Jacques-Coeur, organized around the naturalized animals reported from Africa and India by Guy René Babault. Under the impetus of Canon Gabriel Foucher, entomologist and holder of the Bourges Cathedral, this exhibition became permanent: the museum officially opened on October 8, 1927 in a former municipal gymnasium, before moving in 1932 to Saint Paul Park, where it was inaugurated by Anatole de Monzie, Minister of National Education. That same year, he joined the collections of the Berry Museum and received a major donation from the National Museum of Natural History, becoming an official annex to it.

In 1933, a zoological park was created in conjunction with the Jardin des Herbes de Paris, but the institution declined after the Second World War, closing its doors in 1985 (museum) and 1987 (zoo). A major renovation was launched in 1988, allowing its reopening in September 1989 with modernised spaces. An extension dedicated to man was added in 2001. The museum is today distinguished by its exceptional collections, such as the Hans elephant (1802), the Kouprey (rare species), or the quincete, a local pink opal, as well as its specialization in bats since the 1980s.

The collections, enriched by donations and local preparations, cover botany (30,000 sherbier boards), ornithology (6,000 montages), entomology (70,000 insects), and geology (20,000 objects). Among the notable figures, Gabriel Foucher, founder of the museum, and Guy René Babault, explorer and donor, played a key role. The permanent exhibitions explore biodiversity, animal systematics, the geological history of Berry, and human evolution, with living and naturalized specimens.

The museum, labeled "Musée de France", is located at the Rives d'Auron in Bourges (Cher). Its educational objective is to make science accessible through dioramas, terrariums, and spaces such as Cosmos destination Berry or the universe of the living. Despite periods of decline, he remains a major player in the diffusion of natural sciences in the Centre-Val de Loire region, combining historical heritage and contemporary research.

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