AULLA

Museo di Storia Naturale della Lunigiana
Lunigiana Museum of Natural History is housed in the imposing Fortezza della Brunella, built in the first half of the 16th century. The square-plan fortress was probably built to the design of Antonio da Sangallo the Elder. The museum illustrates Lunigiana landscape and is divided into three sections exhibiting specimens of plants, animals and minerals from the Apuan Alps.


CARRARA

Museo Civico del Marmo
Housed in the former headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce of Carrara, the Civic Museum of Marble was established to document and valorise marble culture. It possesses a collection of over 300 samples of the most important marbles and granites extracted in Italy and in the world. The six sections the museum is divided into (Roman Archaeology, Local History, Technical Applications, Industrial Archaeology, Plaster Casts and Modern Sculpture) exhibit marble extraction and processing machines, as well as topographic maps, drawings and photographs of the area. A new multimedia area illustrates the development of marble culture in the province.


CASOLA IN LUNIGIANA

Museo del Territorio dell`Alta Valle dell`Aulella
The museum housed in the ancient Palazzo Ambrosi documents the history of human settlement in the eastern part of Lunigiana from the Palaeolithic to the modern age through a collection of archaeological finds from Casola and other places nearby. The museum is divided into sections devoted to different historic periods.


FIVIZZANO

Museo delle Grotte "Augusto Cesare Ambrosi"
The museum is divided into two sections that illustrate the natural history and the history of human settlements in the area from the Palaeolithic to the Eneolithic through drawings, reconstructions and explanatory panels.


FOSDINOVO

Museo Audiovisivo della Resistenza delle Provincie di Massa Carrara e La Spezia
The museum is housed in a building erected by the partisans who lived in the area and aims at spreading the knowledge of the history of World War II and the Resistance not only through a collection of works of art and memorabilia, but also, and above all, through the recollections of those who experienced the events first hand. Period footage and photographs are projected on a table similar to a virtual book together with the interviews to those who lived in that period.


MASSA

Museo del Castello Malaspina
Towards the mid-15th century the Malaspina family took possession of the castle erected 400 years earlier, and transformed it in a splendid Renaissance aristocratic residence. In spite of the important modifications it underwent, the castle retained its original defensive function through time. A curious feature of the castle is the fact that the 14th-century keep was not built in masonry but directly in the rock.

Museo Diocesano
The museum is housed in the so-called Palazzo dei Cadetti, built in the second half of the 16th century by order of Alberico I Cybo Malaspina for the cadet children of the family. On display are liturgical hangings and furnishings, gold items and artworks from the cathedral and other churches in the diocese.

Museo Etnologico delle Apuane "Luigi Bonacoscia"
"Luigi Bonacoscia" Ethnological Museum of the Apuan Alps documents the rural, domestic and craftsmen`s activities along the coast of Lunigiana through a collection of working implements, agricultural and industrial machines and objects pertinent to production activities and everyday life from the 19th and 20th centuries. A section of the museum is devoted to marble extraction and processing.

Orto Botanico delle Alpi Apuane "Pietro Pellegrini"
The botanical garden named after the Massa-born doctor and botanist Pietro Pellegrini is situated at an altitude of 850-900 metres above sea level. The lower part of the botanical garden is given over to an experimental arboretum for the cultivation of long-stemmed trees, whereas the upper part is devoted to the spontaneous species of the Apuan Alps.


MONTIGNOSO

Castello Aghinolfi
In spite of the extensive modifications it underwent in the course of the centuries, the castle mentioned for the first time in a document from the 8th century is an excellent example of medieval military architecture. The complex water supply system built towards the mid-15th century is still visible.


PONTREMOLI

Museo delle Statue-Stele Lunigianesi "Cesare Augusto Ambrosi"
The museum is housed in the Piagnaro castle. Built in the early 11th century, the castle owes its name to the so-called "piagne": sandstone slabs used in Lunigiana for the roofs of the houses. On display are the originals and copies of the statue-stelae brought to light in Lunigiana. The statue-stelae are stylized figures of armed men and women adorned with jewels carved in sandstone in the prehistoric and protohistoric age.


VILLAFRANCA IN LUNIGIANA

Museo Etnografico della Lunigiana
Lunigiana Ethnographic Museum documents rural and crafts activities and popular traditions in Lunigiana through a collection of objects of domestic use, working tools, artisanal items and furnishings from the 18th to the 19th century.