Founded in 1908 as the Museum of the Government-General of Taiwan, the National Taiwan Museum is the oldest museum in the country. It occupies a fine 1915 neoclassical hall in the 2-28 Peace Memorial Park opposite Taipei Main Station — Doric columns, a central rotunda lit by a stained-glass dome, and a generous symmetrical layout.
The permanent collection is heavy on the natural history and indigenous ethnography of Taiwan: a fossil collection that includes the only known specimen of the Formosan flying frog, dioramas of native birds, and an excellent two-floor display of the 16 officially recognised Taiwanese indigenous peoples. A satellite branch in the former 1933 Land Bank across the road shows zoological exhibits and a fine pair of dinosaur skeletons.