The Institute of Archaeology Collection

Collection of the Instytute of History

Geological Museum collection

The Mineralogical Museum Collection

Museum of Natural History 

Collection of the Museum of the University of Wroclaw

Collection of the Botanical Garden

Department of Physical Geography Collection

Kolekcje instytucji wspólpracujących

The Museum of Natural History, Wroclaw University, is the largest institution of this kind in Poland. It came into existence in 1814. Its collections comprise numerous unique specimens of extinct and rare species such as the great auk (Pinguinus impennis), passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis), huia (Heteralocha acutirostris) or Tasmanian wolf (Thylacinus cynocephalus). One of the most precious exhibits in the Museum's collection is a skeleton of the Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus), a species got extinct 10 thousand years ago, which is displayed in "The Vertebrates Skeletal System" section. The span of antlers of this species exceeded 3 m. In its collection the Museum possesses also the best preserved in Poland skull of the auroch (Bos primigenius), the ancestor of domestic cattle. This mammal was entirely exterminated in the Middle Ages. The highlight of the collection, displayed in "The Animal World" exhibition, is the only in Poland complete skeleton of the largest animal which has ever lived on the earth, namely the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus).

The Museum of the University of Wrocław has a historical profile and its collection is mostly dedicated to wide-ranging history of the University. Under the ‘Leopoldina online’ project, a part of the resources (normally not available to the visitors of our Museum) has been made available in digital form.

Botanical Garden of the University of Wroclaw is the second (after the Botanical Garden of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow) oldest botanical garden in Poland, located in the oldest part of Wrocław, partly on the former Cathedral Island, called Ostrów Tumski, near the gothic cathedral and St. Cross Church. It was founded in 1811, when the University of Wroclaw was established. Prof. Heinrich Robert Göppert (1800–1884), a pharmacist, doctor and botanist, the first German palaeobotanist, researcher of the Carboniferous and Tertiary flora, head manager of the Garden in 1852–1884, is considered to be its proper creator. In 1974 the Garden was registered in the register of monuments of the then Wrocław Province, and since 1994 it has been located in the historical city centre, under special conservation protection. The collection of this ''living museum'' includes about 12 thousand species and varieties of plants from all over the world, grown on an area of 7.48 hectares in the open air, in greenhouses and in aquaria. The National Collections – the richest in Poland, best documented and exemplarily maintained collections in Poland (bromeliads family – Bromeliaceae, wintering taxa from the family Nymphaeaceae, herbaceous species and cultivars from the genus Paeonia – peony, genera: ivy – Hedera, burhead – Echinodorus and Anubias) – are of particular scientific and horticultural value. The collections of, both, species legally protected in Poland, and species covered by the so-called Washington Convention, that ensures that international trade in specimens of wild plants does not threaten their survival (CITES), are of great educational importance. The Garden, which conducts ex situ conservation crops from the Polish Red Book and from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, contributes to the protection of endangered species as well. Since 1988, the Wojsławice Arboretum in Niemcza has been a branch of the Garden. Sixty two hectares are cultivated there, among others rhododendrons and azaleas (Rhododendron), trees and shrubs of rare species, numerous perennials and fruit trees, mainly old cherry varieties (Prunus avium). Arboretum has three National Collections: the genus daylily (Hemerocallis) – with more than 3 thousand cultivars, the largest such collection in Europe, boxwood (Buxus) and rhododendrons of the so-called Lusatian race cultivars called Seidel cultivars. The Arboretum is also home to numerous collections of different protected and endangered species of native flora.

The collection presents the microscopic images of stem and root structures of Arctic dwarf shrubs in transversal sections. This unique collection contains 360 images of both selected fragments and whole microscopic slides made in the years 2007 - 2017. The dwarf shrubs (Salix polaris, Salix reticulata, Salix uva-ursi, Dryas octopetala, Betula nana) were collected during the Arctic expeditions to Svalbard Archipelago, northern Norway, Iceland and Canada from regions with seasonal and extreme climate conditions. The images show the most important elements of the anatomy of the dwarf shrubs from the point of view of modern geomorphological processes (e.g. wounds, wedging rings) and variability of climatic conditions (e.g. pointer and frost rings) and are unexampled source of information about changes in natural environment of the Arctic. Quality of pictures: magnification x100, 3264x2448 pixels.