As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I went to visit the natural science museum, that has been renovated and reopened recently. It's always exciting to go to a new place, especially when it is newly opened as you know you (should) find an updated interior with the latest technology used to make visitors' experience better. My plan was to pay them a visit without expectations and enjoy whatever is expecting me.
The Department of Natural Sciences of the Maros County Museum, or the Museum of Natural Sciences, as it is known to the general public, is located in the building of the former Industrial Museum of Székelyföld, which was built between 1890 and 1893.
It was built in a neoclassical style, which combines Italian Renaissance elements (the niches of the main facade, which depict two female figures) and Greek elements (the triangular pediment of the main building and the group of statues that adorn it).
The sculptures were created by sculptor József Róna. The statues symbolically illustrate one of the main missions of the state, the development of industry.
The stained glass windows in the staircase were made in the workshop of István Fórgo.
In 1957, the building was made available to the Maros County Museum. The beginnings of the Natural History Museum in Marosvásárhely go back to 1952. The preparer's workshop, in which the pieces included in the former (opened in 1988) basic exhibition of the Natural History Museum were made, was opened in 1965.
The museum it houses collections of paleontology, mineralogy-petrology, lower and higher botany, invertebrate zoology (snails, shells, native and exotic insects) and vertebrate zoology (birds, bird eggs, mammals, skeletons, trophy hunting).source
The building is pretty impressive, both outside and inside, it catches the eye even if you don't like architecture.
These statues are a very nice addition to the lovely building and I could not leave, without taking a few photos of them. Because this is a photography community, I tried to take two of each, one from close and the other from far, trying to frame the photos the best way I could. The problem was the flower beds standing in my way and even though there were no sign warning people, I could never do such a barbaric act as stepping on them, so I did my best.
There's an unusual looking guard at the gate, looking at everyone who wants to enter, so you have to have some courage to go in. I managed to get myself together and pass the gate. Luckily, this serious guard was ok with my act and if I'm writing this post, it means I got out safely as well :)
The second you step inside the museum, you can see this giant skeleton, which, let's admit, is not something you see every day.
This is not a reproduction, this is 95% original, which, at a 50000 year old skeleton is a very big thing.
We have a lot of big animals living on Earth, but these were huge and how their skeleton looks scary.
Before I go on, I'd like to show you something lovely. There's a top floor as well and the on your way up, you can see these lovely stained glass windows, which the quote at the beginning of the post mentions.
Then there was this creature, which seemed pretty harmless, but at the end of my visit, I wasn't so sure about that. This is a three-horned-face, from North America, weighing 7300kg. Interestingly, the creature behaved quite nicely while I was looking at it, but when I was coming down from the top floor, I heard a very strange and ugly voice. When I got downstairs, I saw two kindergarten kids standing in front of it and the creature was making that nose. The two kids were brave though, they stood their ground and were not afraid :)
This was the paleontology section, full of very old bones of all kinds.
What you see here is a cave bear, a woolly mammoth and a woolly rhino.
Mineralogy is not really my thing, I've never been drawn to these funny looking stones, but that's not always the case. There were a few interesting pieces here that made me want some.
White calcite, white quartz, manganoan calcite, all three very beautiful.
Among the coolest things the museum had (or what I am able to reveal at this point) was this board, explaining how a volcano works. If you haven't seen how it works, have a good look as it's interesting.
No. 7 made me smile. It reminded me of my handmade soaps I am usually buying from the craft market. It is a nice piece of aragonite.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
