Palazzo Belgiojoso

Palazzo Belgiojoso lies in the Castello district, one of the old hubs of the city, and houses a series of fascinating museums, such as the Museum of Natural History, the Archaeological Museum, the Historical Museum and the Civic Planetarium, inaugurated in 2004. 

A remarkable feature of Palazzo Belgiojoso is that people with visual disabilities can enjoy the visit. To make the invisible accessible, every part of each object can be recognised by touch: visitors can feel and experience materials, processing techniques, external appearances and learn through tactile cards and captions in Braille. The sensory “Please touch me!” path makes the experience inclusive and fun for all. 

The Museum of Natural History is a unique place that transports visitors on a journey of discovery of the territory: the display cases are filled with specimens of birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians and insects. The rooms dedicated to fauna and mineralogy offer an exciting journey of discovery of local biodiversity. In the room dedicated to the palaeontology of Lecco, there is the only dinosaur fossil ever found near Lake Como: the Lariosaurus, an ancestor of the large dinosaurs that lived around 240 million years ago, of which the plesiosaurus was probably a descendent. 

The exquisite late eighteenth-century building now also houses the Archaeological Museum: eight rooms with finds from the entire province of Lecco, from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Early Middle Ages, in addition to Celtic grave goods from the First and Second Iron Ages and the goldsmith’s art of the early medieval period. 

The Historical Museum section preserves collections concerning the contemporary history of the territory of Lecco and is divided into the Risorgimento room, the virtual Lucco Industry room and the Resistance rooms. 

The Planetarium, opened in January 2005, is located in a completely renovated wing of Palazzo Belgiojoso and is one of the finest facilities of its kind in Italy. The room features an exhibition of astronomical equipment (eyepieces and telescopes) and reproduces the absolutely realistic and spectacular appearance of the sky visible to the naked eye. The heart of the Planetarium is the latest-generation computerised projector that can recreate the image of 3,200 stars on a dome that acts as a screen. The Planetarium also organises projections, conferences, children’s shows and observations for adults and students for educational purposes. 

After visiting the museum, guests can relax in the Palazzo’s park.