|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||||
|
The creation of the La Spezia museum
|
|||||
 The
Civic Museum of La Spezia was founded in 1873 around a first nucleus of
naturalist collections donated by Cesare Pondenzana (1840-1884), Giovanni
Podenzana's father.With the encouragement and help of the La Spezia geologist Giovanni Capellini, only three months after its foundation the Museum already housed, besides the zoological collections, the archaeological findings brought to light during the excavations of the basins and docks of the Military Arsenal, as well as some parchments, geographical maps and documents regarding the history of the town. Later, at the turn of the century, there was a considerable boom in palaeo-palethnological research on the territory, conducted by eminent scientists including Giovanni Capellini himself. The ever-increasing interest in the territory and its most ancient history led to very important 
archaeological discoveries. From the first decades of the 20th century the
Museum was enriched with stelae statues belonging to the Copper and Iron
Ages. The continuous influx of archaeological, naturalist and ethnographic
materials and the numerous donations from local citizens and scholars led
to numerous changes of premises for the Museum: from the small rooms on
the ground floor of the Civic Theatre to larger and larger spaces such as
the Town Hall in corso Cavour, the rooms in the town grammar school, Palazzina
Crozza, where the Civic Library is now located, the church and convent of
the Clarissas, Palazzina Crozza again, and finally its present location,
the Castle of San Giorgio, restored and returned to the citizenry with its
new layout and the exhibition of the Civic Archaeological Collections.
UBALDO FORMENTINI |
|||||
| |||||
