Anatomy museum

At the heart of Montpellier's prestigious Faculty of Medicine, the anatomy conservatory was an invaluable teaching tool for generations of medical students before the advent of modern techniques for exploring the human body. Today, it stands as a unique testament to the history of anatomy teaching.

Dissection specimens, wax, plaster, and papier-mâché casts, and surgical instruments fill the period display cases that punctuate the tour—more than 13,000 objects in total, making it one of the largest collections in France. Take a journey back in time and discover a discipline that has been taught in Montpellier since the late Middle Ages.

A museum rich in its students

The anatomy conservatory was created at the same time as the health school opened in Montpellier in 1795, and was enriched by its students. In 1798, the Montpellier School of Medicine adopted a new measure: "no student may be admitted to the final exams unless they have presented a natural or artificial anatomical specimen to be deposited at the Conservatory." In addition, famous doctors and surgeons donated specimens from pathological cases observed in hospitals.

Opened in 1852 to display collections assembled since 1795, the anatomy conservatory initially served an educational purpose: to make collections dedicated to the teaching of medicine and natural sciences available to students at the Faculty of Medicine in Montpellier.

In 1851, the growth of the collections necessitated the construction of new premises. The anatomy museum then moved into a gallery built by architect Pierre-Charles Abric (1800-1871), just opposite the Jardin des Plantes, where it still stands today.

The conservatory presents, in a majestic setting punctuated by colonnades and under the aegis of famous doctors and allegories painted by Montpellier artist Jean-Pierre Montseret (1813-1888), a series of display cases detailing the human body and its pathologies.

The conservatory also houses a series of wax casts—notably those by Florentine artist Felice Fontana—made of plaster or papier-mâché, surgical instruments, and orthopedic equipment. Other collections related to comparative anatomy, zoology, and archaeology complete this collection.

The collections of the Montpellier Anatomy Conservatory were classified as a historic monument in 2004.