The Museum of Maramureş - The Natural Sciences Department

The Natural Sciences Department of the Maramureș Museum is located in the complex of buildings, in the Liberty Square (Piața Libertății). The history of this institution goes back to 1899, when a two department’s museum was established in Sighetu Marmației: Natural Sciences and History. The First World War led to the closing of the institution, with the museum's current collection containing only two exhibits that have survived the passage of time, namely a naturalized black goat and a mammoth molar. The current department of the museum was founded in 1968 and, through its valuable exhibits of plants, vertebrates, fungi, minerals, rocks and fossils, it illustrates the surprising natural richness of the Maramureș Depression. The flora and fauna of this area are captured in the over 17,000 leaves of grass which are part of the "Artur Coman Herbarium", named after the famous Borșa native, who dedicated himself to this field of research, while the collection of vertebrates includes about 96% of the species found here. More than 1000 samples of minerals, mine flowers and fossils, as well as the more than 1300 samples of macromycetes from the fungi collection are added to this collection.