In the heart of Montefalcone Appennino, inside the historic Palazzo Felici, the Municipal Museum of Fossils and Minerals is housed. Established in 1996, the museum was created to promote the area’s extremely rich geological heritage. The museum tells a story spanning millions of years, with local finds from the Lower Pliocene era and extraordinary fossils from around the world. The local section holds more than 500 artifacts, including mollusks, echinoderms, shark teeth, and the distinctive Balanus barnacles — witnesses to a marine past. The international collection includes true treasures: a mammoth tusk, a dinosaur egg, a cave bear skull, iridescent ammonoids, insects preserved n amber, trilobites, rare prehistoric fossils, and even casts of hominid skulls. The museum also boasts a collection of more than 1,200 minerals, including such outstanding pieces as aragonite with sulfur crystals and a 30-kilogram copper nugget. The room of fluorescent minerals is captivating. Completing the experience is the “Art and Nature” section, featuring paintings made entirely from shells by artist Elio Ceccotti.
