Photo: Matteo Tani · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Museo ornitologico di San Gimignano

Civic museum of San Gimignano in the former church of San Francesco, with 371 stuffed birds from the collection of the Marchioness Paulucci; currently closed.

Temporarily closed

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Temporarily closed. The museum is listed as temporarily closed on the pages with the opening hours of San Gimignano’s museums; no reopening date has been announced.

About the museum

The museum holds the ornithological collection of the Marchioness Marianna Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona Paolucci, donated to the Municipality of San Gimignano in 1927. The specimens, mostly local birds caught on the Villa del Monte estate between 1866 and 1911, were prepared by the taxidermist Riccardo Magnelli, who also worked for the Museo della Specola in Florence.

The collection was first displayed in the Palazzo Comunale and in 1943 was moved to the convent of Sant’Agostino. In 1989 it was restored and presented in a museum display in the former church of San Francesco, also known as the church of Quercecchio. The building, documented as early as 1070, was the seat of the Confraternity of Santa Fina; it has late 18th-century decorations and an attached oratory with frescoed lunettes depicting episodes from the life of Saint Francis.

Of the original collection of over 1,200 specimens, 696 remain, belonging to 253 species, of which 371 are displayed in seven cases: birds of prey, waterbirds, ducks and species rare or extinct in Italy and Europe. The museum is run by the Comune and, according to local tourist information, is currently closed to the public.

Highlights

371 stuffed birds displayed in seven cases
19th-century collection of the Marchioness Paulucci, with birds of prey and waterbirds
Specimens of rare or extinct species
Housed in the former church of San Francesco with a frescoed oratory