Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology

The Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology occupies a neoclassical building that holds the distinction of being the first structure in France designed and built specifically to serve as a museum. Completed in the late eighteen thirties, its long, columned hall was created to provide a dedicated home for a collection that had already been growing for two centuries. The institution traces its earliest roots back to sixteen twenty-five, when minerals believed to possess medicinal properties were gathered for the royal drug cabinet of King Louis the Thirteenth.