Muzeum Geologiczne im. S.J. Thugutta

What to expect

Actual lunar dust from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions - that alone makes this small university museum on the Ochota campus worth booking. Around 4,000 specimens on permanent display from a total collection of nearly 28,700.

Minerals arranged by systematic mineralogical classification - a scientific presentation, not a spectacle. Separate sections for CaCO3-group minerals, quartzes, and agates. The “Meteorites - Rocks from Space” exhibition (since 2002): 52 meteorites as polished thin sections plus 21 tektites from eight locations. The prize of the collection - 233 specimens of the Pultusk meteorite (Poland’s largest recorded meteorite fall, 1868), totalling 3,325 grams, acquired in 2001 from the estate of Prof. Kazimierz Smulikowski. A stratigraphic and palaeontological collection completes the picture.

Warsaw’s geological tradition at the University dates to 1804 - the Mineralogical Cabinet of the Warsaw Lyceum held nearly 13,700 specimens by 1830. Most of the collection was destroyed in September 1939. The present museum opened in 1961, with the permanent exhibition accessible since 1965.

The museum is named after Stanislaw Jozef Thugutt (1862-1956), mineralogist and chemist, rector of the University of Warsaw in 1919-1920, a pioneer in aluminosilicate research.

Ochota is a university district in Warsaw’s west, about 5 km from the Old Town.

Tips

• Advance booking mandatory - call +48 22 55 40 336 or email muzeum.geol@uw.edu.pl. Standard hours Mon-Fri 10:00-12:00, extendable to 15:00 on request.
• Free entry.
• Museum Night (Noc Muzeow) in May - the only chance to visit without booking. Minerals shown under special lighting.
• A virtual museum launched in November 2024 at wirtualnemuzeum.geo.uw.edu.pl for those who cannot visit in person.
• Not wheelchair accessible - stairs, no ramp, no elevator. Guide dogs permitted with documentation.

Getting there

Bus 128, 136, 175 or 188 to the Banacha-Szpital stop (3-minute walk). The museum is inside the Faculty of Geology building on the UW Ochota Campus - enter from the main courtyard through the gate on ul. Banacha. No metro station nearby; the closest is Pole Mokotowskie (M1, red line), 1.5 km away.

Nearby museums

WUM Medical History Museum (ul. Zwirki i Wigury 63, 1 km) - same street, collection of medical instruments. Icon Museum (ul. Lelechowska 5, 1.5 km) - 500 icons in a converted boiler house in Ochota.