The Natural History Museum of Nantes, founded in 1799, houses a large collection of zoological, geological and botanical specimens. The building is a handsome 19th-century structure and the collection is genuinely interesting, particularly the mineral and fossil rooms, which contain specimens from all over the world collected during the age of French colonial expansion.
The museum's most famous exhibit is the Rat King — a cluster of nine mummified black rats with their tails fused together, found in a mill in 1822. Whether this curiosity was natural or fabricated, it draws a steady stream of visitors and has become something of a symbol for the museum. The rest of the natural history collection is solid and well-labelled.