Passed on from family to family since its first structure in the 17th Century (Cavalchinis, Casatis, Dugnanis), it came in as an inheritance, in the mid-19th Century, to Count Giovanni Vimercati, who set the start of a private collection naming it "Natural History Museum".A decade later, in 1846, the palace was given to the city of Milan, which made it the main office for the Natural History Museum of Milan, later moved on the other side of the Park in a specifically built building.