Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden, University of Agder (

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

:''Naturmuseum og botanisk hage, Universitetet i Agder'', formerly Kristiansand Museum and Agder Natural History Museum) is the only

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

on the Southern Coast of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

, located in

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporati ...

Vest-Agder Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway up until 1 January 2020, when it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total population of Norway. I ...

County.

History

The museum known as Kristiansand Museum was founded in 1828 as part of

Kristiansand Katedralskole Kristiansand Cathedral School (''Kristiansand katedralskole Gimle''), known in Latin as ''Schola Christiansandensis'', is a high school in Kristiansand, Agder, Norway. It is the oldest high school on the southern coast of Norway, having been fo ...

. The current museum and botanical garden is run by the

University of Agder The University of Agder ( no, Universitetet i Agder), formerly known as Agder College and Agder University College, is a public university with campuses in Kristiansand and Grimstad, Norway. The institution was established as a university co ...

. Today the natural history museum and botanical garden are located in the former farm Gimle Gård, with the museum in the outbuildings and the former park serving as a botanical garden. The former manor house of Gimle Gård also houses a museum which is part of Vest-Agder-Museum (''Vest-Agder-museet'') .

Permanent exhibits

The permanent exhibits are from the early 1990s. The museum's current exhibition space was opened by the then Crown Prince Harald 26 June 1990. Focus is placed on the topics: "from the Ice Age to the Present" and "from sea to the mountains". In addition, an exhibition on "minerals and rocks". In addition to these, exhibitions are shown in limited periods.

Botanical Garden

Botanical garden consists of plants both outside and indoors. About the botanical garden
naturmuseum.no Inside there is the largest collection of

succulents In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

in Norway, the issues are many and varied. Themes vary from year to year. The botanical garden is a source of knowledge, beauty, adventure and of course recreation, and includes all green spaces of Gimle Gård. Botanical Garden consists of exotic pitcher plants framing the garden,

carnivorous plants Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants still generate some of their energy from photosynthesis ...

, herbs, nectar garden and a popular children's playground. The garden contains various plant collections. There is an old park in the free English landscape style, historic

rose garden A rose garden or rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Most often it is a section of a larger garden. Designs vary tremendously and roses m ...

, rose garden and modern roses, South Norwegian rose garden,

millennium A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...

garden, conifers collection (arboretum),

shrubs A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

and trees at the museum's parking lot (lignoses),

perennials A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also widel ...

, rock garden, pond with water plants, heather garden and a collection of Rhododendron.

References

{{authority control Museums in Kristiansand Tourism in Kristiansand Botanical gardens in Norway Natural history museums in Norway Nature centers

History

Permanent exhibits

Botanical Garden

See also

References