Museo Paleontologico "Luigi Boldrini" di Pietrafitta

“Luigi Boldrini” Paleontological Museum of Pietrafitta The structure of the Museo Paleontologico di Pietrafitta, built expressly for this purpose, with its 3000 square meters displays one of the largest collections, at a European level, of fossil finds of mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects dating back from the Lower Pleistocene, 1,6-1,4 million years ago. The remnants of large mammals are exhibited in the “cradles”—this is what the nucleus supporting the fossils still encapsulated in the material in which they were found are called—surrounded by an arrangement with a didactic and communicative purpose. The finds are only partially restored and it will continue to be done even inside the museum, where a laboratory for this purpose is foreseen. The fossils come from the large deposits of Lignite, which are at a short distance from the museum, and the name of the museum honors the memory of the first mineworker who collected and saved the important discovery from destruction. The mine activity developed in the Basin of Pietrafitta—with its heritage of “industrial archaeology” intended not only as a history of the work and machinery used, but also, or rather mainly, the history of the fortunes that happened to the individuals who worked in the mines, therefore a social history of a particular industrial and geographical environment—constitutes a further element confirming once again the cultural importance of the area.