Have you ever wondered what was on the inside of a big building and never had the chance to enter to discover it? I had this feeling every time I was strolling through the alleys of Serra San Quirico, a quaint village which bears also the Orange Flag (we spoke about Serra San Quirico in a previous post).
The building I am referring to is the “Complesso Museale Santa Lucia” that I had no idea was a museum building! I was well aware of the Church of Santa Lucia, which is one of the most spectacular example of baroque style in central Italy, and I was guessing that the building next to it, which used to be a monastery, was just a part of the whole complex.
Well, in fact, it is a part of it, but there’s much more to add. This “Complesso Museale” hosts 3 museums: the regional historical map collection, la Cartoteca storica delle Marche, the art museum belonging to Fondazione Casoli, and the Natural History Museum which belongs to the Parco Naturale Regionale Gola Della Rossa e di Frasassi, where we took some of our walks and hikes during these years.
The visit starts with the map collection: the maps that are shown are only of the regional area and date from the beginning of the 19th century. The maps themselves are useful to understand how the cartographers were depicting our territory from the 16th to the 20th centuries. The biggest piece on this museum is the big paper globe, which is a reproduction of the globe made by Vincenzo Coronelli during the 16th century. Last but not least, there are also some interesting maps showing board games or maps used during the war, where the drawing was never just a drawing: it was useful to teach, learn, play and share political ideas, as well!
The second museum is the “Museo Premio Ermanno Casoli 1998 – 2007” which collects the contemporary works of art that competed in the Premio during those years. This competition started in 1998 and it was named after Ermanno Casoli who was a big entrepreneur of this area. The works of art that partecipated in the competition and got selected by the jury are on the central cube, whereas the others are on the other two dedicated rooms.
The last museum is the Natural History Museum. The aim of this museum is to promote and share the discovery, knowledge and interpretation of a responsible use of nature. The wildlife of Parco Naturale Regionale Gola della Rossa e di Frasassi is shown in two different rooms: one dedicated to the prehistory, geology and archeology of the territory (there are many fossils and also the reconstructed skeleton of the ichtyosaur, that we introduced to you some posts ago). The second one focuses on the naturalist excellences of our territory shown in many diaromas or as embalsed animals.
But that’s not all! On the second floor, which belongs to the Parco, as well, there are rooms thought for didactic purposes with embalmed animals and dioramas and even a planetarium! The planetarium is inflatable and it projects a full dome reproducing the sky from both north and south hemisphere.
If we have awakened your curiosity, book your visit to the museums online: https://turismo.parcogolarossa.it/trekking/
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