Museo Etnografico "Giovanni Podenzana" La Spezia

The Ethnographic Museum of La Spezia was established in 1906 by Giovanni Podenzana (1864-1943), musician, ethnographer and naturalist of La Spezia; in 2005 it reopened to the public in the new headquarters of the former oratory of San Bernardino (XIV c.), by way of Prion, in the historic center of the city. The renovated exhibition with materials of historical Lunigiana, dating from '700 to' 900 is articulated through some main themes: the devotion and popular cults, superstition and magic-therapeutic practices, the Ligurian tradition of gold, the vessels of the home, personal grave goods, tools for weaving and spinning family, the traditional male and female costume.

The museum conserves and exhibits many items of the local and extraregional ethnographic and anthropological collection. Mainly This collection was donated by Giovanni Podenzana (1864-1943), musician, ethnographer and naturalist from La Spezia, who built it from 1891 to 1936. As part of the nineteenth century city museum, the ethnographic section AIMS to give the visitor an overall view of the old local rural society, analyzing its psychological aspects, concentrating on folk religious feelings and oral history.