The Giant Crystals
Display opened 2014; crystals collected in the 1960s and 1970s
In the centre of the mineralogy gallery, on a stepped platform under low light, sit crystals so large they seem to belong to another planet. There are columns of smoky quartz taller than a child, blocks of topaz and beryl the size of suitcases, and clusters of transparent crystal that catch the light like ice. Most were dug from pegmatite deposits in Brazil, where mineral rich fluids cooled slowly enough over millions of years to grow single crystals of this size. Together they form the largest collection of giant crystals in any museum in the world.
The crystals were assembled by a Bulgarian born dealer, Ilia Deleff, over the 1960s and 1970s, and the museum acquired them as a set. Look at the flat faces and sharp edges: each is a natural geometry, the outward expression of the atomic lattice inside, and a quartz crystal a metre long has exactly the same six sided form as one you could hold between two fingers. Some show phantom crystals within, ghostly outlines marking earlier stages of growth. Around the room, the Trésors de la Terre display continues with meteorites, gems from the royal collections of Louis the Fourteenth, gold nuggets and minerals of every colour.
The building itself is worth a look. It was designed by Charles Rohault de Fleury and begun in 1833, and it is often described as the first building in France constructed specifically to be a museum, with a long classical facade facing the garden. The gallery closed for many years and reopened in 2014 with this display, so it remains one of the less crowded corners of the Jardin des Plantes and a cool, quiet refuge on a hot afternoon.
Did You Know? Some of the giant crystals are so heavy that the floor of the gallery had to be checked and reinforced before they were installed.
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