The Museum of Natural History of the Mediterranean
In Livorno, in the historic Villa Henderson since 1980 there is the Museum of Natural History of the Mediterranean. The villa belonged to George Henderson who was part of the British community of the city of Livorno; after his death the villa passed to the provincial administration of Livorno.
The museum is spread over three floors and then continues into the garden of the villa; it is divided into various sections that trace the evolution of organisms in nature, the physics of flight with the relationship between birds and nature and a section dedicated to minerals and plant fossils of the Mediterranean.
Continuing in the garden there is an outdoor room dedicated to the invertebrates of earth and water, a botanical garden and a wet area with fish and turtles.
In the garden there is also the Sea Room where there is the skeleton of a common whale found in Piombino in 1990 and other Mediterranean cetaceans.
In the last decade, an Environmental Education Center has been created, with educational functions and composed of several laboratories, and a Germplasm Storage Laboratory aimed at safeguarding species that risks the extinction of the Mediterranean.
The museum also includes a Planetarium and an Auditorium that host conferences and workshops.