While already in antiquity places like the Temple of Peace exhibited collections (here of bounty of war), the first museums of modern times started to open only in the Renaissance:
The Dresden Renaissance Stable was originally much more lavishly painted and contained - partly still existent - ancient collections of arms, saddles as well as figurines and was openly visitable in guided tours from 1588 onwards.The first publicly visitable collection of art pieces, exhibiting beside 128 valuable Italian riding art horses some 50 sleds, carved figurines of Black Riders, horses, saddles and arms as well as a painting gallery, was contained in the Dresden Electoral stable, opened to the public in 1588. The collection itself dates however already from the 14th century.[1]
The Capitoline Museums, the oldest collection of art in the world, began in 1471 when Pope Sixtus IV donated a group of important ancient sculptures to the people of Rome. It was however only opened to the public in 1734.[2]
The Vatican Museums, traces its origins to the public displayed sculptural collection begun in 1506 by Pope Julius II.
Ambras Castle (Schloss Ambras Innsbruck), Austria, is not the oldest art collection, but it is the earliest collection still to be found in that very building created especially for its museum purpose (1572–1583, Supplement 1589).
The Lower Castle of Ambras Castle, Innsbruck was one of the earliest buildings explicitly intended for use as a museum and still exists today in its proper function, showing the original collections.
The Livrustkammaren in Stockholm is one of the oldest museums still in use. Created 1628 by Gustavus Adolphus during the thirty years war. The collection also has the oldest inventory in the world still in use. It has collections from 1558 still on display.[3]
The Royal Armouries in the Tower of London is the oldest museum in the United Kingdom. It opened to the public in 1660, though there had been paying privileged visitors to the armouries displays from 1592. Today the museum has three sites including its new headquarters in Leeds.[4]
Rumphius built a botanical museum in Ambon in 1662, making it the oldest recorded museum in Indonesia. Nothing remains of it except books written by himself, which are now in the library of the National Museum. Its successor was the Batavia Society of Art and Science, established on 24 April 1778. It built a museum and a library, played an important role in research, and collected much material on the natural history and culture of Indonesia.[5]
The Amerbach Cabinet, originally a private collection, was bought by the university and city of Basel in 1661 and opened to the public in 1671.
The British Museum in London, was founded in 1753 and opened to the public in 1759.[7]Sir Hans Sloane's personal collection of curios provided the initial foundation for the British Museum's collection.[7]
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, This art collection was begun in the 15th century by Cosimo de' Medici, enlarged by his descendants, and in 1743 bequeathed by the last heir of the House of Medici "to the people of Tuscany and to all nations". The Uffizi Palace (built 1560–1581) was designed by the Renaissance painter and architect Giorgio Vasari. The top floors were converted to gallery space, open to visitors on request, and then opened to the public as a museum in 1769 by Grand Duke Peter Leopold.[8][9]
The Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation is the oldest in Latvia and the whole of the Baltics, and one of the oldest in Europe. It was founded and opened to public in 1773 by the Riga Town Council as Himsel Museum. The rich and diverse collections of the museum originated from an art and natural sciences collection of Nikolaus von Himsel (1729–1764), a Riga doctor. Today the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation collections number more than 500 000 items, systematised in about 80 collections.
The Louvre Museum in Paris (France), also a former royal palace, opened to the public in 1793.
The Brukenthal National Museum, erected in the late 18th century in Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania, housed in the palace of Samuel von Brukenthal—who was Habsburg governor of Transylvania and who established its first collections around 1790. The collections were officially opened to the public in 1817, making it the oldest institution of its kind in Romania.
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 364,073 inhabitants in 2024, and 990,527 in its metropolitan area.
The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best-known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
The Belvedere is a historic building complex in Vienna, Austria, consisting of two Baroque palaces, the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. The buildings are set in a Baroque park landscape in the third district of the city, on the south-eastern edge of its centre. It currently houses the Belvedere museum known in German as the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. The grounds are set on a gentle gradient and include decorative tiered fountains and cascades, Baroque sculptures, and majestic wrought iron gates. The Baroque palace complex was built as a summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy.
The Palazzo Pitti, in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker.
Agnolo di Cosimo, usually known as Bronzino or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, Bronzino, may refer to his relatively dark skin or reddish hair.
Samuel Freiherr von Brukenthal was the Habsburg governor of the Grand Principality of Transylvania between 6 July 1774 and 9 January 1787. He was a personal advisor of Empress Maria Theresa.
The Royal Armoury is a museum in the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden. It contains many artifacts of Swedish military history and Swedish royalty. It is the oldest museum in Sweden, established in 1628 by King Gustavus Adolphus when he decided that his clothes from his campaign in Poland should be preserved for posterity.
The Medici Vase is a monumental marble bell-shaped krater sculpted in Athens in the second half of the 1st century AD as a garden ornament for the Roman market. It is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Museo Galileo is located in Florence, Italy, in Piazza dei Giudici, along the River Arno and close to the Uffizi Gallery. The museum, dedicated to astronomer and scientist Galileo Galilei, is housed in Palazzo Castellani, an 11th-century building which was then known as the Castello d'Altafronte.
"ASTRA" National Museum Complex is a museum complex in Sibiu, Romania, which gathers under the same authority four ethnology and civilisation museums in the city, a series of laboratories for conservation and research, and a documentation centre. It is the successor of the ASTRA Museum that has existed in the city since 1905. Its modern life started with the opening of The Museum of Folk Technology in 1964, now The "ASTRA" Museum of the Traditional Folk Civilization.
The Museum of Zoology and Natural History, best known as La Specola, is an eclectic natural history museum in Florence, central Italy, located next to the Pitti Palace. The name Specola means observatory, a reference to the astronomical observatory founded there in 1790. It now forms part of the Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze. This museum is part of what are now six different collections at four different sites for the Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze.
The Brukenthal National Museum is a museum in Sibiu, Transylvania, Romania, established in the late 18th century by Samuel von Brukenthal (1721-1803) in his city palace. Baron Brukenthal, governor of the Grand Principality of Transylvania established his first collections around 1790. The collections were officially opened to the public in 1817, making the museum the oldest institution of its kind on the territory of modern-day Romania.
Ambras Castle is a Renaissance castle and palace located in the hills above Innsbruck, Austria. Ambras Castle is 632 metres (2,073 ft) above sea level. Considered one of the most popular tourist attractions of the Tyrol, Ambras Castle was built in the 16th century on the spot of an earlier 10th-century castle, which became the seat of power for the Counts of Andechs. The cultural and historical importance of the castle is closely connected with Archduke Ferdinand II (1529–1595) and served as his family's residence from 1567 to 1595. Ferdinand was one of history's most prominent collectors of art. The princely sovereign of Tyrol, son of Emperor Ferdinand I, ordered that the medieval fortress at Ambras be turned into a Renaissance castle as a gift for his wife Philippine Welser. The cultured humanist from the House of Habsburg accommodated his world-famous collections in a museum: the collections, still in the Lower Castle built specifically for that museum's purpose, make Ambras Castle one of the oldest museums in the world.
Hallwyl Museum is a Swedish national museum housed in the historical Hallwyl House in central Stockholm located on 4, Hamngatan facing Berzelii Park. The house once belonged to the Count and Countess von Hallwyl, but was donated to the Swedish state in 1920 to eventually become a museum. In 1938, the museum was officially opened.
The National Archaeological Museum of Florence is an archaeological museum in Florence, Italy. It is located at 1 piazza Santissima Annunziata, in the Palazzo della Crocetta.
The Dresden Armoury or Dresden Armory, also known as the Dresden Historical Museum, is one of the world's largest collections of ceremonial weapons, armour and historical textiles. It is part of the Dresden State Art Collections and is located in Dresden Castle in Dresden.
The Reale Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale was an Italian museum founded on 22 February 1775 in Florence that survived until 1878, when its collections were split up in various Florentine museums.
The Imperial Armoury, formerly known as Waffensammlung, is a collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Together with the armoury at Ambras Castle near Innsbruck, which is also a member of the KHM museum group (KHM-Museumsverband), it houses the arms assembled by the Austrian branch of the Habsburg dynasty. It is one of the largest and most well-documented historical collections of arms and armour in the world.
References
↑ Ortrere, Ulrike (2024). Kurfürstlicher Stall and Stallhof Dresden - Das erste Museum der Neuzeit[The Dresden Electoral Stable and Courtyard - the first museum of modern times.] (in German). Tredition. ISBN979-8302604828.
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