Museo naturalistico di Stazzano

The Natural History Museum of Stazzano offers documentation of considerable educational value. It was founded in 1980 by a group of Naturalists from Stazzano who have been working since 1974 to preserve and protect the rich natural heritage of the area. The recently renovated Museum houses an important collection of minerals and fossils, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects and plants in Villa Gardella. An orientation chart indicates the routes to follow, depending on the topic in which the visitor in interested. Wall displays showcase minerals from Italian caves and grottoes, a significant number of local fossil finds and rocks and strata of the Ligurian-Piedmontese Apennines. Anthropological remains can also be observed which bear witness to human evolution on our planet. The second room houses a rich ornithological collection, donated to the museum by Mario Carrega and Fabrizio Silvano, comprising birds of Italian avifauna, eggs, and characteristic nests. A showcase displays small mammals (rodents, bats, etc…). The following room is home to carnivorous mammals (pine marten, red fox, badger, etc...), amphibians and reptiles. All the animals belong to species which populate our countryside. The reptiles include several Apennine vipers and large colubrid snakes. There are also fish, crustaceans and mollusks. The insects, including many native butterflies and moths, are collected and arranged in the third room. There are also boxes of African, Asian and South American moths of magnificent colors and hundreds of other insects, divided by families. The last room houses several of the plant samples, cataloged and kept on the upper floor of the villa. It is here that the most important herbarium in the Province of Alessandria is kept, the result of long and patient work by Mario Carrega and Domenico Silla. On the same floor there is also a screening room and a small scientific library. OPENING TIMES - Saturday: from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. - Always: by appointment.