The Witte Museum

The Witte Museum is where Science, Nature and Culture Meet. The Witte is located on Broadway, along the banks of the San Antonio River in Brackenridge Park. The Witte Museum is San Antonio’s premier museum inspiring people to shape the future of Texas.  

You can park in the free Brackenridge Park Parking Garage, to the south of the Witte’s 10-acre campus. Walk along the Witte’s Adventure Walk, encounter concrete circus elephants and a dinosaur, as well as native plants, bio swales, fossils and fountains.

Enter the Susan Naylor Center of the Witte Museum through the dramatic H-E-B Lantern.  

• H-E-B Lantern – As you enter the H-E-B Lantern, be greeted by the Nora and Steve Burkhart Quetzy sculpture, a life-size, fleshed out Quetzalcoatlus complete with giant pterosaurs flying in the sky as they would have flown nearly 72 million years ago.
   
• Valero Great Hall – Check in at the Walker Admissions Desk and enjoy the Gates Mineral Orientation Theater on Texas Deep Time. Explore the Texas Deep Time rock walls and associated artifacts.
   
• Naylor Family Dinosaur Gallery – Experience the past and step into the land once inhabited by giant creatures, including Acrocanthosaurus and T-Rex, that lived in what is now Texas more than 110 million years ago. Discover full-size dinosaur cast skeletons, molded footprints from area fossils, and animals that once roamed Texas millions of years ago. Young paleontologists can excavate bones and study the link between dinosaurs and modern-day birds in the Dinosaur LAB. *
   
• Kittie West Nelson Ferguson People of the Pecos Gallery - Travel back thousands of years and experience a unique look at the people of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. Glimpse at realistic sculptures and witness how these people hunted, cooked and socialized.  Experience the world like an archaeologist as you try out ancient peoples’ tools and technology, and explore the rock art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands in the expansive Lifeways and Nancy Smith Hurd Rock Art Labs. *
   
• McLean Family Texas Wild Gallery – The beloved historic dioramas of the Witte are housed in the McLean Family Texas Wild Gallery, where a state-of-the-art, high-tech space with immersive galleries showcasing the uniqueness of Texas. Immerse yourself in the flora and fauna from all the varied regions of Texas, and listen to country music legend George Strait as his voice guides visitors through the expanded and enhanced Mary West and Richard Traylor Sounds of South Texas. Enter the SWBC Live Lab and the East Foundation Land Stewardship Lab to participate in hands-on activities, learn about the rich variety of environments in Texas and how you can help conserve the state’s rich outdoors and natural resources. *
   
• Robert J. and Helen C. Kleberg South Texas Heritage Center - A 20,000-square-foot, two-story repository of the Witte’s many incredible artifacts and collections. Among these are the longest digitally printed photograph in the world at the A Wild and Vivid Land: Stories of South Texas exhibit and a re-created general store from San Antonio’s storied Main Plaza, once the biggest commercial hub in Texas. Through these and other displays, the Center brings to life the cowboys, vaqueros, Tejano freighters and community leaders, chili queens, American Indians, oil workers who lived in these parts over the last century and a half. 
   
• H-E-B Body Adventure – The H-E-B Body Adventure Powered by University Health System, encourages healthy lifestyles with engaging experiences throughout four stories of interactive games, challenges, and activities. The fun includes running across a motion-capture screen, live cooking demonstrations, cycling through beautiful San Antonio (virtual) scenery, and live performances by InterActors.

The Witte Museum hosts a variety of daily programs and demonstrations including Gallery Theater that are free with admission to enhance your museum experience. Continue your adventure in the six major gardens and riverside landscapes including The Texas Wild Garden, The Science Garden, Tuleta Garden, Aqueduct Plaza and entry gardens at the Feik Family Orientation Pavilion and the Tex Elliott Family South Texas Heritage Entry Court.

Along with being a showcase for the culture and peoples of the Lone Star State, the Witte Museum is a private event venue popular for weddings, birthday parties, corporate events, and other gatherings for crowds 10 to 1,500 strong. The lovely grounds include a native plant garden, oak-tree-lined courtyard, two auditoriums, and several historic buildings from as far back as the Spanish Colonial period. The latter prove that while the “New Witte” is a sight to behold, it’s the old reminders of yesteryear that make the museum truly special.