The "Augusto Capriotti" Fish Museum - How we were

Life underwater is something beautiful and fascinating, which has always aroused curiosity in both researchers and non-experts. The idea of establishing a Fish Museum in San Benedetto originated in March 1965. The project creators were not scientists, but the members of a local angling sports association, the “Pescasportiva Giovanni Poloni”, who aimed to collect and preserve anything the sea could offer. In year 1977, the project was approved by the Municipal Administration of the city, which also provided a suitable facility. The museum was named after the world famous microbiologist and researcher Professor Augusto Capriotti (1920-1970), who worked alongside the Nobel Prize winner Prof. Selman A. Waksman.

The “Augusto Capriotti” fish museum includes numerous marine species. The new museum exhibition, inaugurated in 2019, is divided into thematic areas and exhibits the aquatic variability starting from the species that live in the seabed up to the surface life. In the museum you will find the IMMER.S.E.A. stereoscopic room, which thanks to the 3D animations, allows a virtual immersion in the depths of the Adriatic Sea.

The local fishermen significantly contributed to the development of the museum by making a donation whenever a new species got caught in their nets. The collection currently includes species from the Mediteranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Indopacific area.