Museum of Oltenia Craiova- Natural sciences

Inaugurated on December 2, 1923 under the title "Museum of Natural History Craiova", by the members of Craiova Scientific Circle managed by Prof. Marin Demetrescu, teacher of natural sciences, the museum became a department of Oltenia Regional Museum in 1928.

On May 13, 1928 it was decided that the Museum of Natural History Craiova, having extended its management area to the collections of the Museum of Ethnography and Antiquities Dolj county during 1927, should "restrict the exploration area to Oltenia region" (Vincenz, 1928) and function under the title “Oltenia Regional Museum”, managed by Prof. Marin Demetrescu.

At first, the Department of Natural Sciences was operational in the Prefecture building; between 1934 - 1948 the department moved to the current office of the Ethnography Department, and between 1949 - 1975 it was operational in the current office of the Archeology – History Department.

During this period, the patrimony of the Department of Natural Sciences was opened for visitors under various exhibition forms until 1963, when the basic exhibition was introduced into the exhibition circuit, installed in the building ground floor at 44 Madona Dudu Street, performed according to a thematic project drafted by Prof. Dr. Ioan Firu. This exhibition was phased-out in the year 1975 to extend the basic exhibition of the Archeology – History Department.

Between the years 1975 - 1986, in the absence of the required space, the exhibition within the Department of Natural Sciences closed and was followed by specific activities with the aim to complete, diversify, record and scientifically improve the museum patrimony.

The new exhibition campaign began on March 13, 1986, on the building ground floor at 8 Popa Sapca Street where it also continues to be operational nowadays, when two temporary exhibitions have been introduced: “Butterflies – Flying Petals” and “Animal World”. The two exhibitions have been regularly followed by dozens of temporary exhibitions with the aim to renew the enhanced patrimony with museum pieces resulting from research activities performed by curators. At least four temporary exhibitions have been showed annually at the Department’s office, some of them being also exhibited in other museums in the country (Drobeta Turnu Severin, Timişoara, Târgu Mureş, Brăila, Curtea de Argeş, Suceava, Bacău, Bârlad, Bistriţa Năsăud etc).

On September 18, 2008, the basic exhibition from the 1st floor has been opened and installed after implementing the project “Enhancing tourist attractiveness of Craiova municipality and Dolj county by installing the basic exhibition at the 1st floor of the Department of Natural Sciences within Oltenia Museum in Craiova”, submitted on December 16, 2002 within PHARE Program 2001 Economic and Social Cohesion – Non-refundable financing scheme for small infrastructure projects, by Dolj County Council, in partnership with Oltenia Museum – Department of Natural Sciences (photos 1-3).

On February 22 2012 the basic paleontology exhibition “Oltenia – Terra fossilis” has also been introduced, installed at the building ground floor located in 8 Popa Şapcă Street.