Capannoli | Museums of Villa Baciocchi

The Museums of Villa Baciocchi consist of the Archeological Museum, the Zoological Museum and the Botanical Park. It hosts in its wonderful rooms two museum itineraries to discover nature and history. The Museums frequently expand their collections, organize educational workshops, offer a guided tour accompanied by a snack in the park.

The areas of the Museum

Villa Baciocchi is an 18th-century building erected on the ruins of the medieval castle, former property of important Tuscan families such as Pucci, Della Gherardesca, and finally the Marquis Baciocchi from which it took its name.

On the first floor, the Zoological Museum with more than 1400 animals including mammals, birds, reptiles, invertebrates, specimens prepared thanks to the technique of taxidermy, which are presented to visitors in their habitat.

On the main floor, the Archaeological Museum presents the Valdera from Prehistory to the Middle Ages through the Etruscans and Romans with ceramics, coins, stone elements, reconstructions of housing types.

In the large Botanical Park, among small kiosks and caves, 12 monumental trees and a total of 160 rare botanical species grow, including the Canadian Sequoia, the majestic Atlas Cedar, and the Yew, a conifer that can reach twenty meters in height.

Taxidermy Courses

The museum organizes courses in taxidermy, perhaps the only one in Italy, fundamental within a Museum of Natural History, as it allows the recovery of an animal for the purposes of a scientific museum, such as conservation, study and exhibition for popular purposes of the specimens.