Herzer Palace (1791-1795) was built as a late Baroque Classicist palace. It is interesting that the Palace was not build by an aristocracy, but by a town postman Franjo Herzer who got rich after he had won the lottery. But, he soon went bankrupt and the Palace was taken from him. It was completely renovated 10 years ago. It has housed a permanent exhibition of the Entomological Department of the Varaždin City Museum called the World of Insects since 1954. Also, the Museum`s Historical and Archaeological Departments are situated in it. Above the main entrance there is a stone carved coat of arms of the Herzer family. They became one of the richest families thanks to postal business and they bought their way into nobility. Nowadays, Herzer Palace houses an entomological collection, which belonged to a grammar school teacher Franjo Koščec. His collection is part of a permanent exhibition called the World of Insects. It was rebuilt in the 1990s and experts and visitors claim it is one of the most beautiful collections in Europe.
4,500 exhibits which best illustrate the biology of insects are divided into several categories: In the Forest, Near the Wood and on a Meadow, In Water and on a Shoreline, At Night and in the Ground. The exhibition also includes entomological preparations, vertebrate taxidermy, herbarium plant specimen, enlarged insect models, photos and different objects that used to belong to prof. Koščec. They also include tools which he himself invented and which he used to create his collection. The permanent exhibition also includes other natural scientists who lived in Varaždin at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century and one room has been designed to look like prof. Koščec`s study.
