The museum tour begins with the origins of museums, which can be traced back to the ancient wunderkammer.

A new chamber of wonders has been created in the classic Renaissance style, with countless objects adorning the walls and ceiling of the red room with a barrel vault.

All the objects contained in the Wunderkammer come from various historical collections owned by the University of Parma: from giant shells to colourful birds, strange deformed creatures and species belonging to extreme ecological niches. Scientific instruments alongside shamanic and ritual fetishes constitute the artificialia that counterbalance the marvellous and mysterious human biological “machine”, well represented by two life-size anatomical wax models placed transversally across the exhibition route.

Minerals, corals, sponges, skeletons, skulls, leopards and anteaters guarantee wonder and stir emotions.

At the end of the Wunderkammer, a display case containing the museum’s oldest historical collection stands out. It consists of eleven glass bottles containing stuffed animals, prepared in a spectacular manner. These are the famous bottles of Jean Baptiste Fourcault, made between 1760 and 1770, according to a method of preparation that remained unknown for almost three centuries.