Museum - Montopoli in Val d'Arno

The Civic Museum

Housed in palazzo Guicciardini, the Civic Museum was completed in 2003.

The archaeological section has the Majnoni collection, with Etruscan exhibits found during the 19th century around Montopoli and, finally, the personal collection and documents which illustrate the work of Isidoro Falchi, a Montopoli doctor and a keen archaeologist, whose name is connected to the discovery of Etruscan necropolises in Vetulonia and Populonia, in the last few years of the 19th century.

The section dedicated to the town shows the objects found around the Rocca (especially ceramic fragments), religious objects, crests, stone fragments and frescoes detached from town buildings, to document the various periods of local history.
A large room is also dedicated to the production of the Milani factory, Terrecotte di Montopoli.

The paleontology section, housed in the seminary, shows the remains of a mastodons and a whale found in the surrounding countryside, proof that the area of Montopoli was on the coast in the paleolithic era. On the same floor there are some exhibits which record the activity of the Gruppo Archeologico “Isidoro Falchi”, operating in this area.

The top floor of the museum is entirely dedicated to the figurative arts, with works by local artists. Silvio Bicchi (1874-1948), postmacchiaioli painter; Menotti Pertici (1904-1966), Bicchi’s pupil, Paolo Ciampini (n. 1941), an internationally known engraver.