The Museum

The Carmagnola Natural History Museum (Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Carmagnola; Turin, Italy) was founded after two successive floods hit the town, in September 1973 and February 1974.

After these events, what had been saved of the natural history collections of the earlier “Museo Civico” and of the science rooms of two schools was recovered and restored; at the same time there was also the opportunity to collect biological material in the field, especially insects, stranded or carried by the water.

The Museum was opened in 1976 in Palazzo Lomellini, in the town centre. In 1990 it was moved to its present home at Cascina Vigna, in the town park of the same name, on the outskirts of the town and a few kilometres from the river Po. Since the river area has meanwhile been included in the Piedmont Region's System of Protected Areas, the museum has also become a Park Visitor Centre.

Today the Carmagnola Natural History Museum holds important scientific collections of minerals, plants and animals, with a focus on insects, reptiles and birds. The specimens in the scientific collections are used in research carried out by many Italian and foreign researchers.

The Museum has also set up many agreements for education and research with various bodies and associations, including the Po River Park, the Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali (Regional Museum of Natural Sciences) in Turin, and the Departments of Earth Sciences and of Animal Biology of the University of Turin.

The Museum is home to the Associazione Naturalistica Piemontese (ANP), the Gruppo Piemontese Studi Ornitologici “F. A. Bonelli” (GPSO), and the Stazione Teriologica Piemontese (STEP).

The Museum adheres to the ICOM Code of Ethics for Natural History Museums.