Marca Fermana - Monte Falcone Appenino
Montefalcone Appennino
MONTEFALCONE APPENNINO
Museo dei Fossili e dei Minerali - Museo dell'Alamanno
Palazzo Felici, Via Roma, 42
Tel.: 0734/79136 - 339 366752 - Fax: 0734/79120
E-mail: info@montefalcone.it –
info@depturismoecultura.com
www.montefalcone.it - www.depturismoecultura.com
THE HEADQUARTERS AND THE COLLECTIONS
The territory of Montefalcone is particularly rich in a wide variety of fossil fauna, which can be traced back to the early Pliocene. The first study of these finds was conducted in 1880 by Alessandro Mascarini and was published by the Royal Geological Committee Bulletin No. 7-8. The fossils of Montefalcone have always attracted the interest of scholars and palaeontologists. And it was to enhance these geological features that in 1996 the Municipal Museum of Fossils and Minerals was founded. The Museum is situated in Palazzo Felici, a building dating back to the early decades of the 17th century, which belonged to noble families. In large rooms, decorated with tempera, the different sections are set up. The one of the Local Fossils exhibits 500 early Pliocene remains. There you can observe Cirripids of the Balanus type, 60 different species of Molluscs (Murex, Nassa, Natica, Turritella, Dentalium, Ostrea, Pecten, etc. some Echinoderms and shark teeth. The exhibition of Fossils from all over the world and of all ages is interesting due to the presence of pieces of great importance, such as a skull and other parts of the skeleton of a cave bear of the Pyrenees; a mammoth tusk of very large dimensions from very famous deposits from the North Sea; a sauropod dinosaur egg, an egg of the Aepyornis (the biggest egg ever laid in the history of Earth) from Madagascar. The Minerals Section preserves 1,200 pieces, all very interesting and some even exceptional, such as an aragonite block with some perfect crystals of transparent sulphur; a stilbite with many "clumps" of ‘natrolite’ weighing 26 Kg; a large block of calcite with marcasite in excess of 20 Kg. In a particularly evocative cave, set out for this purpose, fluorescent minerals are preserved under Wood lamps.
In the section dedicated to art and nature 300 paintings are exhibited, done by Elio Ceccotti and entirely made up of shells (about 10,000), collected by the artist on the shoreline and assembled with great patience to create flowers, plants, branches.
In a room of Palazzo Felici the Madonna with Child polyptych is exhibited. It is a tempera on wood panel 237x180 cm, painted by Pietro Alamanno between 1475 and 1480 in exaltation of the Franciscans Friars of the Observants. The polyptych is of particular importance for its stylistic and iconographic values.
Relevant to the Museum is the Tronelli Garden built in the years 1928 and 1929 that slopes down from the cliff of Monte Falcone. Snake-like trails define areas around flower-beds and lead to two small caves where you can enjoy a magnificent panorama that goes from the Sibillini Mountains to the Gran Sasso.
The Museum is also the home of the local Wildlife Education Centre. The CEA offers to schools and organized groups educational services such as: microscopic observation of microfossils, research and excavation in the local fossil deposits, classification and reconstruction of a fossil in the lab, fun group activities in the woods.
Palazzo Felici is also home of the Eco-museum for the entire province of Fermo, Pieve Bovigliana and Castignano respectively for the provinces of Macerata and Ascoli Piceno. An oral documentation centre that collects, catalogues, preserves and disseminates popular knowledge that have regulated and influenced the entire cycle of life for centuries and which have been handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth.
Type: History and Natural Sciences, Art
Services: Library, conference room, laboratory for learning activities, projection audio-video room, disabled access, guided tours of the museum, guided tours to the local paleontological sites, guided tours to the nature paths of the Protected Flora Area of Monte Falcone, guided tours to local historical sites.