Leon Pancaldo Technical Nautical Institute Museum, Savona

Inaugurated in May 2009, on the top floor of the historic headquarters of the “Leon Pancaldo” Nautical Institute, with the purpose of collecting, restoring, and preserving the rich heritage of instruments, machinery, historic laboratory equipment, ancient volumes, and memories of an institute that, founded in 1856, throughout its long history has trained thousands of students and has brought the name of Savona to the world.

The exhibition covers an area of 500 sqm and includes various sections: the gallery of paintings of graduates throughout the institute’s long history, historical photos of Savona’s port in the early 1900s, models of vintage ships, historic laboratory equipment for physics and electrical engineering, instruments and onboard equipment, perfectly functioning steam engine models, marine engine models, technical drawings made by students in the 1950s-60s, a classroom dedicated to port operators, a study-library housing ancient books, a meteorological station with 19th-century instruments, fully operational, which daily transmits data to be sent to ARPAL and the Ministry of Agriculture, the large historic planetarium, one of the few functioning in Italy.