Museo Civico di Palazzo San Francesco - Domodossola

An old Franciscan church has been converted into three exhibition levels. The ground floor, also used for temporary exhibitions, has a large nave and two aisles separated by columns with sculpted capitals and frescoed bays. The first floor houses the Museum of Natural Sciences, with a selection of stuffed animals, a collection of minerals, an accurate stratigraphy of the Simplon region, a botany section, entomology, malacology, comparative anatomy, and some interesting organic finds. The second floor has been designed as a space to come into contact with art in its most intimate forms.  In the archaeological area, you can admire artefacts from different periods and cultures, from ancient Egypt, prehistory, Lepontian, and Roman times. Liturgical furnishings, stained glass, carvings, and polychrome wooden and stone sculptures from the Church of San Francesco represent sacred art. In the picture gallery, with paintings and drawings from the late 16th to the 20th century, there are several works by artists from the Vigezzo Valley, the "Valley of the Painters."