[12] Initially located in the Baroque part of the Residential Palace Darmstadt,[13] the museum moved in 1906 to a nearby new building.

[20][3][21] The encyclopedic museum[22] consists of several period rooms or experience spaces,[23] a monumental entrance hall with a staircase in Palladian architecture, a Pompeian style wing (509 BC – 400 AD) for the ancient art (including Roman courtyard and Oceanus mosaic),[24][25] Romanesque corridors and chapels (900–1300) for the medieval treasure art, a Late Gothic hall (1350–1500) for the historical weapons, the Italian Renaissance Chiavenna room (c. 1580) for the Princely Treasury and corresponding open courtyards.

[26] The large east-wing Baroque hall Großer Saal with an imposing barrel vault is used for special exhibitions.

[27] This asymmetric agglomeration of architectural styles, according to the design philosophy "Form follows function",[11] is embedded in a rather rigid grid.

[40] The museum is especially noted for its art collection, including Pieter Brueghel the Elder's The Magpie on the Gallows, and one of the plaques from the Magdeburg Ivories (c.

[43] Basis of the graphic collection are the works by Dürer and Rembrandt, bought by museum founder Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse in 1803.

[44] It also features an important natural history collection, with for instance fossils from the nearby Messel pit[45][46] and a historic American mastodon skeleton ("Peale's mastodon"), originally exhibited at Peale's Philadelphia Museum,[47] purchased by the Darmstadt naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup.

[26][51][52] The Simon Spierer [de] Collection A Forest of Sculptures includes works of well-known international artists of the 20th century from Early Modern to Contemporary art, like Constantin Brâncuși, Alberto Giacometti, Max Ernst, Henry Moore, Tony Cragg,[53] Hans Arp, Barbara Hepworth.