Hungarian Natural History Museum

In 1818 the late Pál Kitaibel's herbarium was offered to the museum, giving rise to the new Botanical department.

In the period after the fall of the revolution, however, the only major change was the acquisition of the collections of the Royal Hungarian Natural History Society in 1856.

In 1927, when Budapest hosted the Tenth World Congress of Zoology, the insect collection harbored about 3 million specimens, thus it had to be moved to a building in Baross Street.

During the 1956 revolution against the Soviet occupation, artillery shots hit the main building of the National Museum.

36,000 stuffed birds, 22,000 avian eggs, 13,000 fish, 40,000 amphibians and reptiles, 500,000 molluscs, 60,000 dragonflies, and 200,000 dipterans were burnt, together with 100,000 volumes of scientific books and reprints.

In 1979, the Department of Botany moved to a historical building designed by Ödön Lechner, one of the most prestigious architects in the country.

The museum publishes several books and four periodicals, including Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae.