Il monte San Giorgio
Il Monte San Giorgio, a cavallo del confine italo-svizzero è circondato da due rami del lago di Lugano.
Oltre ad offrire percorsi escursionistici di interesse naturalistico e panoramico, il Monte è tra i più importanti giacimenti al mondo di fossili del Triassico Medio: l’ambiente a quel tempo era quello di una complessa laguna tropicale.
Il Monte è stato iscritto nella Lista del Patrimonio mondiale dell’UNESCO nel 2003 per il versante svizzero e nel 2010 per quello italiano.
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Altre informazioni
Il Monte San Giorgio viene identificato come la miglior testimonianza della storia geo-paleontologica in ambiente marino risalente a 247-235 milioni di anni fa che, attraverso le migliaia di fossili rinvenuti negli ultimi due secoli, ha permesso di studiare in dettaglio l'evoluzione di molti gruppi di organismi marini.
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Massimo Cocchia
05:36 04 Jul 22
Three stars of encouragement, in the hope that he can find it open, during the opening hours indicated on its website.
Too bad for the empty trip, but above all for the disappointment of finding a closed door.
Paolo Margherini
17:13 10 Apr 22
Probably the ideal would be to bring the children with a class visit, by now there are very interactive and tactile museums, however, the commitment to continue to carry out the project is appreciable.
Elena Cerutti
13:21 19 Feb 22
A small but really interesting museum revolves around the finding of large dinosaur fossils in the area. Many examples of fossils and a nice booklet for children with games and activities.
Massimo Maroni
06:54 14 Feb 22
Hi we are Lisa and Arianna and yesterday we had a lot of fun! Thank you!
Nataliya Nykulyak
13:00 10 Feb 22
A beautiful and useful place for children who study dinosaurs in the third grade. The girl at the reception is very kind
Almerinda D'Addona
06:38 08 Feb 22
Beautiful collection of minerals, careful studies, love and passion in this museum on a human scale. Recommended!
Alessandro Zanardo
10:37 20 Nov 21
I was pleasantly impressed by the care and welcome. A place to spend an hour with the children or even more, if you let yourself be surprised by the many little things.
Davide Grosso
18:55 01 May 21
A small treasure chest full of paleontological wonders of the area (Monte San Giorgio).
Highly recommended!
Andrea Plebani
14:51 25 Oct 20
A nice and recently renovated museum, an ideal destination for children and families. A part with very nice tactile experiences for children and new digital experiences in addition to the beautiful life-size reconstruction of the Besanosaurus .. A must see.
walter saccardo
10:27 03 Jan 20
Halloween party for kids. Highly recommended, well organized, it stimulates their curiosity and makes known the history of our territory and the fossils that have been found.
Alexander Melchers
20:33 11 Oct 19
This museum is, at one time, both a missed opportunity for the village of Besano and a commendable effort. It is a missed opportunity in that it is incomparably less impressive than the close-by museum in Meride, Switzerland: there are much fewer exhibits on display, and those moreover generally are of a significantly lesser quality than in the Swiss museum. In addition, those that either spark the interest or are aesthetically pleasing are casts from originals now housed in Milan. This undoubtedly is costing the community otherwise valuable tourism, with even locals being unaware of the museum's existence.
On the other hand, the museum should be lauded for its efforts of preserving and presenting the community's important natural heritage in a local context, making at least some of its prehistoric wealth available to the inhabitants of the area where these incredible finds were made. One way in which this intention shines through is in the many sculpted and drawn reconstructions of the ancient life-forms the museum has on display. In another, the museum's simple cabinets give it a feeling of being at someone's home, which sometimes allows you a better view of material than in a more modern museum, where objects, for safety reasons, are frequently distanced from the visiting public.
As a final note to international visitors: though certain texts are accompanied by English and even German translations, most of the information provided will - obviously - be in Italian.
Sara Oriani
19:57 25 Apr 19
Molto bello, adatto ad adulti e bambini. Peccato l'estrema riduzione degli orari di apertura.
Cinzia Leonardi
20:23 22 Mar 19
Se siete della provincia di Varese, è d'obbligo una bella visita al museo dei fossili di Besano! Sempre apprezzatissimo dai bambini!
Monica Cavallero
20:01 11 Mar 19
Piccolino ma un concentrato della nostra storia da triassico ad oggi ne vale la pena
Alfredo Dalferro
18:14 03 Feb 19
Small museum built in the center of the village with some of the fossils found on Monte San Giorgio Unesco heritage. Very suitable for school visits and tutorials. The region should invest a lot more in the area regarding this asset with the creation of a modern and technologically advanced inter-municipal museum.
Paolo Maschio
13:48 26 Jul 18
After about 1 hour of travel, I thank the management for NOT having warned on their website that the museum will be closed until September. Not so much for us grown-ups, but for the little ones who arrived on purpose from Alessandria to see the Besanosaurus on purpose!
Thanks again!
Luca Pianezzi
17:24 07 Apr 18
Il piccolo museo dei fossili di Besano racchiude la storia dei numerosi giacimenti fossiliferi, soprattutto bituminosi, della zona riconosciuti Patrimonio dell' Umanità dal 2010. Partendo dal secondo piano si ha una completa visione della conformazione geologica dei monti circostanti e delle numerose scoperte di livello mondiale. Si prosegue al primo piano dove sono raccolti ed esposti alcuni dei più importanti ritrovamenti, primo fra tutti il Besanosaurus. Esperienza interessante per i "piccoli" appassionati di dinosauri...
Paola Cartaginese
10:00 06 Mar 17
Museo molto carino ma non eccessivamente curato. Di ha l'umore di una gestione familiare! Filmato pre visita molto datato e bookshop inutile, volevamo acquistare un souvenir ma c'erano solo due libri vecchi, di cui uno in cirillico! Però al mio bami di cinque anni è molto piaciuto!
Paolo M
06:33 10 May 13
Perchè un museo in un paesino piccolo e sperduto ? Perchè qui c'è un nel Mesozoico c'era un mare dai fondali bassi e piatti, costellato di piccole isole vulcaniche ed adesso abbiamo un importantissimo giacimento di scisti bituminose che hanno conservato perfettamente i fossili. I ritrovamenti succedutisi da quando si è iniziato a scavare nel 800 sono numerosissimi e numerosi esemplari sono veramente di pregio. Viene da pensare e rimpiangere a quella grande parte che è andata persa nell'ultima guerra nell'incendio al Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano provocato dai bombardamenti alleati.
La particolarità delle scisti è quella di conservare impressa nel materiale una finezza di dettagli che altri tipi di fossilizzazioni non riescono a dare, i pesci le pianti e sinanche le coproliti hanno una nitidezza che più che fossili li fanno sembrare degli esemplari solo anneriti da un incendio.
Come dicevo la collezione è impressionante, si parte dalle ammoniti ed altri invertebrati per arrivare ad una nutrita schiera di esemplari di pesci che nuotava in questi mari. Proseguendo nella sala ci si trova ad ammirare diverse qualità di ittiosauri e plesiosauri ed altre tipologie di rettili marini sino ad arrivare al bel Ticinosuchus Ferox, una specie di coccodrillo predatore che viveva sulle isole.
Ma il re del museo è il Besanosauro, un appartenente alla famiglia degli ittiosauri delle considerevoli dimensioni di quasi sei metri. Più che un esemplare è UNA esemplare dato che si tratta di una femmina incinta con gli scheletri dei piccoli che sono perfettamente visibili in corrispondenza dell'addome della madre. Il reperto è nero ed occupa tutta una parete, si può passare tanto tempo qui andando a vedere i singoli nitidi particolari dell'esemplare e vedendo poi il filmato che racconta il ritrovamento ed il certosino lavoro necessario per liberare completamente le ossa dal bitume e riassemblare i le tavole in cui il reperto era stato diviso durante l'estrazione.
Sylvia Kestenholz
06:15 31 Dec 23
My sons love the museum, it's very modern, has clear structures and - best of all - virtual reality immersion. VR glasses take you to the Triassic time underwater and now to the Meride beach as well. We love it
Lukas Renggli
21:51 22 Nov 23
Small museum of fossils. Unfortunately much of the text is only in Italian. Some VR/AR exhibits, but nothing groundbreaking.
Randall K
17:07 03 Nov 23
Great museum in a beautiful location. Our kids loved the guided tour, especially the immersive VR experience!
stefania chetcuti
06:08 20 Feb 23
A great place for the children. We all had a lovely time. Virtual reality was a hit, we all loved it and had a great laugh. The lady that greeted us and explain everything was so nice and friendly.
Adi
13:24 16 Aug 22
There are nice hiking trails around Monte San Giorgio, and the museum is definitely worth a visit!
Michael Blok
02:40 08 May 22
Nice but pricey little museum. The importance of the UNESCO site is enormous and the exhibitions do a good job of explaining the finds and showing fossils and copies. We learned a lot!
If you don't want to spend the steep 44 euros for a family of 5, and as a perfect follow up to the museum, go to the sites themselves. Very pretty and you might find a fossil too!
Renato Ramonda
10:51 17 Oct 21
Set in a tiny village on the hills, in a traditional house... It's actually a very modern and well organized museum.
The four floors tell the story of the prehistoric state of the southern Ticino area, when it was a subtropical sea dotted with islands.
The numerous specimens are well displayed and the information in the displays, and the infographics, do a really good job in telling the information about them as a story, both of the ancient animals and of the excavation sites themselves.
Multimedia support material is well done and contributes well: especially the video "superimposed" on an actual slab full of fossils. And of course the VR/AR were cool.
Small downsides: the audio guide is OK, but merely recites almost exactly the text on the info panels (plus, the tablet gets a bit heavy if you stay for a while: a carrying tote would be helpful). Also, for people (like us) who take time to actually watch and read everything the full visit can last some 4 hours... Some more places to sit and rest would have helped.
Overall, a very good experience.
Florina Vilciu
21:42 31 Aug 21
Small but very cool place. Take a guided tour if you can and really learn about the work behind each piece. Also, don’t forget to use the virtual reality goggles, they’re quite fun!
Michał Graf
18:54 02 May 21
Very nice museum with lot of interactive information for all.. My kids loved the animated content... other of course was less attractive for them but it was very good and condensed lesson for all of us. VR and AR part was also nice and inwas happy that even the covid situation they were well prepared to ensure safety of visitors.
Simon Kaufmann
21:45 30 Apr 21
Excellent presentation for all age groups! Kids can selfguide with special audioguide.
Hugues Crutzen
11:27 16 Jul 20
Very nice museum with several multimedia displays and recommended audio guided tour for kids.
Krzysztof Meyer
10:29 11 Aug 19
A little museum with couple of expositions which make it worth a while.
Philipp Fehr
11:28 24 Jun 19
Very interesting museum. The lady who worked there was very kind and friendly.
Ric Rabe
13:40 20 Apr 19
The 1 unstarred is for the italian only texts on the wall but the printed materials and the multimedias are in at least 4 languages. Interactive, well thought and creative presentations.
Heather Gauthier
09:51 12 Apr 19
The staff was very helpful, coming up to the different levels of the museum if you had any questions. The exhibit was awesome, audio tours in English were provided on a tablet for a small cost.
Fabrizio Sommaruga
15:27 30 Jun 18
Remodeled and expanded by the Ticinese architect Mario Botta, the Fossil Museum in Meride exhibits a selection of fossilized animals and plants from the unique UNESCO World Heritage Site of Monte San Giorgio.
The 2.5-meter long reconstruction of the saurian Ticinosuchus welcomes visitors to the fossil museum in the center of the village of Meride. Spread over four floors, the large variety of animals that lived 245 to 180 million years ago in the erstwhile sea and on the coast of southern Ticino are exhibited. Illustrations and models explain to the public the long extinct world whose fossils have been excavated, prepared and scientifically described by Swiss and Italian experts since 1850.
Possibility to visit Monte San Giorgio and the fossiles Museum with a specialized guide.
Closed: Mondays, 24th/25th/31st December, 1st January
Pascal Honegger
15:42 22 Jul 17
Beautiful and modern museum. Sadly most of the descriptions are only available in italian, but there is an option to buy an audio guide. Also there was a technical problem, which was most likely temporary. Overall a worthwhile visit. I also appreciate the feedback they provide within Google.
Gelo Valle
06:57 31 Oct 16
Interessante scrigno dei fossili del patrimonio Unesco del Monte San Giorgio, progettato da Mario Botta. Ben fatti e interessanti i supporti interattivi, bella la sezione dei marmi di Arzo. Il paese che ospita il museo (Meride) è molto caratteristico e va certamente visitato
Anne Marie Macheret
15:30 27 Oct 16
Explications très claires lieu très confortable même pour les personnes à mobilité réduite il y a un ascenseur. Ne peux que recommander ce musée de plus l'entrée gratuite pour les détenteurs de la Master carte de la Raiffeisen
