FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Robert Seitz]

I was able to spend several months in Europe last year which presented great opportunities to visit several exhibits of minerals / mineralogy.

The Natural History Museum - Hamburg was one such. It is well worth a visit. With 500 m² of exhibition space, mineralogy at the Museum der Natur Hamburg - Mineralogisches shows a selection of 1,500 exhibits over two levels.

Some details of their location and hours may be found at:
http://hamburg.leibniz-lib.de/ausstellungen/museum-mineralogie.html
(link normalized by FMF)

[James Catmur]

Thank you. I will see if I am ever close to Hamburg

[Tobi]

I've never been to that museum and with all the endless construction sites and traffic jams on our German Autobahns it's a 6-8 hour drive to Hamburg for me here from the middle of the country ... but on my next trip to nothern Germany I should maybe go there :-)

Thank you for the little museum report, Robert!

[Robert Seitz]

Look for some more postings.

Which of the European Museums would you most recommend for mineral exhibits - small or large? We have really enjoyed Hamburg, Salzburg, Vienna, Munich, Prague, Budapest, London, Copenhagen, as well as several small city museums.

[Philippe Durand]

for France
I will recommend the Sorbonne Museum, the school of mines Museum and the Natural History Museum (sadly the late one displays less minerals than in the past) all in Paris.

My favorite is the Crystal Museum in Chamonix.

[Tobi]

[Gagat Minerals]

The sixth photo from the top (IMG_2214.JPG), smoky quartz, is still the subject of discussion in Poland as to its origin. The specimen is labeled Lomnitz, Niederschlesien, today's Łomnica near Jelenia Góra. I uploaded a photo of this specimen on Mindat, no one has ever seen a second 'Tessin habit' quartz crystal of this type from the miarolitic pegmatites of Karkonosze Mountains (Germ.Riesengebirge) or from the Strzegom-Jawor area.

By the way - apart from meteorites, perhaps the most spectacular specimen in the museum is a group of giant stibnite crystals from Japan. Photo taken 20 years ago... - at that time as Mineralogisches Museum der Universität Hamburg.

Regards
Kristof