The Museum closed on 3 November 2025.

By 2029 a bigger museum grounded for a desirable future

10 billion people by the end of our century? Will the Earth still be inhabitable by all living beings, those same beings that have made it possible to live on our planet for the last 4 billion years?

How do we address the decline in biodiversity, the climate emergency, all the great challenges that human beings are faced with?

What transition do we need to make in order to preserve our Earth and its habitability?

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To answer these questions, the Museum, a metropolitan amenity focusing on scientific culture, is embarking on an ambitious restructuring project covering its building and scientific itinerary alike, with a view to adapting to the ongoing changes in society and the environment.

The Museum closed its doors on 3 November 2025 and work will begin in 2026. The work will provide an opportunity to render the building more energyefficient, make it fully accessible to all comers and provide more room for exhibiting the collections it has conserved since the late 18th century.

The scientific itinerary will be designed to ensure that the Museum fulfils its role as a major actor in a society in search of answers connected with the climate, biodiversity and the ecological transition so as to be able to inhabit the Earth tomorrow.

The work involved will entail total closure of the Museum itself but its activities will continue in other venues in the Nantes Métropole, with a cultural programme including exhibitions, lectures, events and activities.

Its reopening is planned for 2029, when visitors will discover a scenography that has been redesigned throughout and includes a new scientific itinerary with extended collections along with knowledge and contemplation spaces, and an ideal venue for exchanges and discussions between scientists and citizens.

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The Museum near you

The Museum is also now involved in cultural programming in the Nantes metropolitan area.

Travelling exhibitions, conferences and unique events will be on offer. 

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Initially, when it opened on August 15, 1810, the Museum was located in a different area of the city. 65 years later, it moved and started to welcome visitors on its current location on August 19, 1875. The building was then adjacent to the former Hôtel des Monnaies that would become, 25 years later, l’École Supérieure de commerce de Nantes (a business school). In 1970, this business school moved, and cleared some space for the Museum. Renovation works were made to join both edifices: classrooms were turned into exhibition rooms and the auditorium was kept to host conferences. As years passed by, various renovations took place, first in the seventies, then between 2008 and 2010.

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