The Archive and Museum of Memory in Bagnone is housed in Palazzo della Cultura, a former Florentine records office built in the 1700s atop pre-existing buildings. Related services (educational multimedia rooms, exhibition halls and the Gipsoteca, a plaster casts gallery) are located in Palazzo del Consiglio in piazza Roma, which was restored in the early 20th century, adapting the surrounding late-16th-century houses.
The gallery was founded in late 2005/early 2006 with the aim of documenting the history of the area. From the very beginning, it has been a cultural park with thematic routes – some outside – for visitors to explore, and related educational services (temporary exhibitions) are located in another public building (Palazzo del Consiglio - Piazza Roma).
The museum is the cornerstone of the park. The collection is on display in the main building, which is divided into rooms and follows a historical itinerary, documenting the main events that shaped the area over the centuries through maps, objects and documents. The exhibition also highlights human aspects of work and economy, as well as the religious life of the community. There is even an itinerary dedicated to recordings and multimedia conservation of the memory of the community, focused on the 20th century and attesting to the local civic culture as well as migration trends. A part dedicated to oral memory is related to this section, with a series of exhibitions hosted in Palazzo del Consiglio in piazza Roma, where the Gipsoteca is also located and where visitors can find early 20th-century panels by the artist Augusto Magli dedicated to the culture and life of rural communities in the Lunigiana.
