{"id":1596,"date":"2026-09-26T06:56:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T04:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visitbordighera.com\/?post_type=luogo&p=1596"},"modified":"2026-10-03T17:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T15:02:09","slug":"museo-bicknell","status":"publish","type":"luogo","link":"https:\/\/visitbordighera.com\/en\/places\/museo-bicknell\/","title":{"rendered":"Museo Bicknell"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the Via Romana<\/a>, behind two gigantic fig trees, stands the Museo Bicknell: a stone building with a colonnaded portico, founded in 1888 by the English naturalist Clarence Bicknell. Today it belongs to the Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri and is a museum, a library and a research centre all in one, among the places most closely tied to the Bordighera of the English.<\/p>\n

Inside are the collections Bicknell assembled over thirty years of study: casts of the rock engravings of Mont B\u00e9go, one of the most important butterfly collections in Europe, watercolours of flowers and a large library. Outside, a garden with two monumental trees: the fig trees<\/a> and the wisteria<\/a> on the fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n

Clarence Bicknell and the birth of the museum<\/h2>\n

Clarence Bicknell (1842\u20131918) came to Bordighera as an Anglican clergyman and here became a botanist, archaeologist and artist. In 1888 he founded the museum, partly to give the large English colony a place to display collections and to meet. The neo-medieval building has a rectangular plan, a portico inspired by Roman models and, inside, a hall with a raised stage, like a small auditorium.<\/p>\n

For more than thirty years Bicknell combined scientific research with philanthropy. He studied the flora of the Riviera, published illustrated books on the plants of Bordighera and Sanremo, and was among the first to make a systematic study of the prehistoric rock engravings of the Vall\u00e9e des Merveilles, on Mont B\u00e9go, now in France.<\/p>\n

What to see<\/h2>\n

The Mont B\u00e9go engravings<\/h3>\n

The museum is best known for its casts and reproductions of the rock engravings of the Vall\u00e9e des Merveilles: thousands of prehistoric signs that Bicknell copied and catalogued during his summers in the mountains.<\/p>\n

The butterflies and the watercolours<\/h3>\n

Bicknell\u2019s butterfly collection is considered among the most important in Europe. Alongside it are his watercolours of flowers and plants, painted with a botanist\u2019s precision.<\/p>\n

The library<\/h3>\n

Built around Bicknell\u2019s own books, it now holds more than 85,000 volumes and thousands of journals on archaeology, art and local history: it is still a research library, open to scholars.<\/p>\n

The garden and the monumental trees<\/h3>\n

In front of the entrance grow the Moreton Bay fig trees<\/a> planted by Bicknell, now some twenty metres tall, and on the fa\u00e7ade the wisteria<\/a>: both are listed among Italy\u2019s monumental trees. The gate is open during museum opening hours.<\/p>\n

Tips for your visit<\/h2>\n