Registry of Biodiversity Institutions, Collections and Databases: Institution

Description

The Geominero Museum belongs to the National Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (CSIC), a center of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Museum’s collections originate from the specimens that were collected during the work of the Commission for the Geological Map of Spain. This commission was created by Queen Elizabeth II in 1849. During the early stages of this commission, the collections were dispersed until in 1927 they were definitively located in the Museo Geominero, their current location.

In the Geominero Museum, the mineral resources and fossil remains of the majority of Spanish geological deposits are represented. Unique samples of rocks and minerals from former Spanish colonies such as the Philippines, Cuba or the Western Sahara are also on display. The Museum’s collections offer an extraordinary journey through time, thanks to its 40,000 minerals, 1,500 rocks and 67,000 macropaleontological samples. A large part of these specimens is in the permanent exhibition.