Vaud Geology Museum

Naturéum - Geology

Where?

Palais de Rumine

Price

Free

A real history book, the Naturéum’s geology collections are packed full of treasures, testaments to a past that is often shrouded in mystery for the general public. The museum’s free permanent exhibitions in the Palais de Rumine in Lausanne include fossils, crystals and an explanation about the formation of the Alps.

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Address

Palais de Rumine
Place de la Riponne 6
1005 Lausanne

How to get there

Permanent exhibitions

Free

Temporary exhibitions, full price

8 CHF

Temporary exhibitions, reduced price

5 CHF

Temporary exhibitions, up to 25 years old

Free

Closed on Mondays.
Public holidays: open from 10am to 5pm.
Free admission on the first Saturday of the month.
Closed on 25 December and 1 January.

+41 21 692 44 70

Website

La Cité

ArchitectureHistoryHeritageShopping

This is a quarter full of typical small bistros and craft shops. To the north of the Cité hill, at Place du Tunnel, avenue César-Roux avenue and Place de l’Ours, shops and quirky bistros cry out to be discovered. It is around the Cité hill, sculpted by the Flon and Louve rivers, that the mediaeval town grew. Its cobble-stoned pedestrian streets as well as its monuments, the Cathedral of Lausanne, the St-Maire Castle and the Old academy, bear witness to that.

Lausanne Cathedral

Heritage

At the heart of the old town, the majestic Lausanne Cathedral overlooks the city. Seen as one of the most beautiful gothic art monuments in Europe, it attracts more than 400,000 visitors every year.

Palud square

HeritageShopping

In the centre of the square is the town’s oldest fountain, adorned with a statue representing justice. Close by, a clock presents the history of Vaud in animated scenes every hour from 9:00 to 19:00. On Wednesday and Saturday mornings this is the site of the country market, which also sets up shop in the neighbouring pedestrian streets. Every first Friday of the month, it plays host to a craft market. Typical cafes, boutiques and large, elegant shops complement what this high-class district, which is completely pedestrianised, has to offer.

More info

Housed in the Florentine style building of the Palais de Rumine, the treasures of the museum take its visitors to another world, with a 16,000 year-old mammoth skeleton, one of the most complete ever found in Europe and an enormous molar discovered in 1897 which apparently belonged to a prehistoric hippopotamus who lived in Sicily 1.8 million years ago.

Here too, mineralogy enthusiasts can discover the amazing collection of a thousand minerals created by Czar Alexander 1st and brought to Switzerland by his tutor, Frédéric-César de La Harpe. But the main attraction is The Welcome Nugget, the biggest gold nugget ever recorded at 57.3 kilos. Truth be told, this is the single replica of this nugget since the Australian original was melted in London in 1859…