Photo: Effems · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Museo di Storia della Medicina «Dr. Ottavio Badessa»

Museum in Villafranca Tirrena, housed in an Art Nouveau building, with around 200 medical and surgical instruments from the late 18th century to 1940.

Opening hours unknownFree admission

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About the museum

The museum is dedicated to the memory of the country doctor Ottavio Badessa, born in 1898 at Bauso, now part of Villafranca Tirrena, who visited his patients at home by horse-drawn carriage (calesse), now the symbol of the museum. It was opened in 2004 under an agreement between the municipal administration and the doctor Paolo Badessa, who donated the collection. It is housed in an Art Nouveau building in Via Rovere.

The collection comprises around 200 scientific objects from the late 18th century to 1940, displayed in cabinets: medical and surgical instruments of every speciality, gathered over more than forty years of research in many Western countries. Among the most important pieces is a bladder stone extractor with horsehair parts, of which only two perfectly preserved examples are known, and four Ombredanne anaesthesia masks, similar in design but different in form because they were made in different countries. There are also instruments with handles of ivory, horn or ebony, dating from before the introduction of sterilisation and disinfection.

Highlights

Around 200 medical and surgical instruments from the late 18th century to 1940
Bladder stone extractor with horsehair parts
Four Ombredanne anaesthesia masks
Instruments with handles of ivory, horn or ebony

Founded: 2004
Visitors per year: approx. 500