Museums of the Madonie: what to see town by town

The Madonie have more than twenty museums, almost all small and run by the town councils. The three not to miss are the Museo Mandralisca in Cefalù, with the Portrait of a Man by Antonello da Messina, the Museo Civico in the Ventimiglia castle in Castelbuono, and the Francesco Minà Palumbo natural history museum, also in Castelbuono. Then there are museums you only find here: the Targa Florio in Collesano, salt sculptures in a working mine, the Madonie fir in Polizzi Generosa.

At a glance

• Art: Museo Mandralisca (Cefalù), Museo Civico (Castelbuono), Pinacoteca Gianbecchina (Gangi).
• Nature and geology: Minà Palumbo (Castelbuono), Giuseppe Torre geology section (Petralia Sottana), Museo Ambientalistico Madonita and Museo dell’Abies nebrodensis (Polizzi Generosa).
• Archaeology: Polizzi Generosa, Caltavuturo, Castellana Sicula, Gangi.
• Rural life and crafts: Geraci Siculo, Polizzi Generosa, Gangi, Isnello (embroidery), Pollina (manna).
• Opening hours: checked today only for the Museo Civico of Castelbuono (every day). For the others, call first.

The Madonie museums in a table

This table lists the museums by town, with the theme and location given by the Ente Parco delle Madonie and the museums’ own websites.

Town	Museum	Theme	Location
Cefalù	Museo Mandralisca	painting, archaeology, coins, shells	via Mandralisca 13
Cefalù (Gibilmanna)	Museo Fra Giammaria da Tusa	sacred art, friars’ life	Capuchin friary
Castelbuono	Museo Civico	castle, Sant’Anna, contemporary art	Ventimiglia castle
Castelbuono	Francesco Minà Palumbo natural history museum	natural history of the Madonie	former convent of San Francesco
Collesano	Museo della Targa Florio	the motor race	corso Vittorio Emanuele
Petralia Sottana	Museo Civico Antonio Collisani	archaeology and geology	corso Paolo Agliata 100 and Palazzo Pucci Martinez
Petralia Soprana	MACSS, Museo SottoSale	rock salt sculptures	Italkali mine at Raffo
Polizzi Generosa	Civico Museo Archeologico	Hellenistic necropolis	former Jesuit College
Polizzi Generosa	Museo Ambientalistico Madonita	Madonie wildlife	piazza Castello
Polizzi Generosa	Museo dell’Abies nebrodensis	the Madonie fir	Palazzo di Città
Polizzi Generosa	Museo Etnoantropologico	rural life	old town (ask the council)
Gangi	Palazzo Sgadari museum system	archaeology, painting, weapons, rural life	Palazzo Sgadari
Geraci Siculo	Museo Etnoantropologico delle Madonie	rural life	via Don Orione
Caltavuturo	Museo Civico Don Giuseppe Guarnieri	archaeology, puppets, sacred art	former convent of San Francesco
Castellana Sicula	Museo Civico di contrada Muratore	Roman archaeology	contrada Muratore
Isnello	Museo Trame di filo	embroidery and textiles	via Impillitteri
Pollina	Museo della Manna	manna from the ash trees	former town hall, piazza Duomo
Scillato	Water museum	mills and springs	Paraturi mill
Gratteri	Museo Centro Ambientale	local nature	via del Sole 30

Museo Mandralisca in Cefalù

The richest museum in the Madonie. It occupies the house of Baron Enrico Pirajno di Mandralisca, a 19th-century naturalist and collector, a few metres from piazza Duomo. With no direct heirs, the baron left his whole estate, library and collections to a school foundation in Cefalù (Fondazione Mandralisca).

What to see:

• The Portrait of a Man by Antonello da Messina, known as the Portrait of an Unknown Sailor. According to the account given by the Ente Parco, the baron found it in Lipari in an apothecary’s shop.
• The archaeological collection, with red-figure vases from the baron’s excavations in Lipari and finds from Tindari and Cefalù.
• The ancient coins, from the mints of Sicily and Lipari: 232 from Syracuse, including the decadrachm signed by Euainetos, 250 from Lipari and 86 Carthaginian.
• The shells, one of the richest malacological collections in Europe, with species from the Madonie and the Rocca di Cefalù.
• The family furniture: a coin cabinet of 1630, a Pleyel fortepiano of 1856, an 18th-century sedan chair and a 17th-century nautical portolan chart.

The museum also holds the collection of the lawyer Vincenzo Cirincione, who in 1873 left more than 140 paintings to the town of Cefalù. The old town is on the Cefalù page and the cathedral in our guide to the Madonie churches.

Museo Civico of Castelbuono

The Museo Civico occupies the Ventimiglia castle, bought by the people of Castelbuono at a public auction in 1920 with a popular collection (Ente Parco delle Madonie). It has four sections:

• Sacred art, with the Treasure of Sant’Anna: silver, coral, vestments, ex-votos and the jewels that dress the saint’s statue on her feast day;
• Archaeology, with finds from the castle excavations;
• Urban history, on the shape of Castelbuono from its origins to today;
• Modern and contemporary art, with works by Cagli, Schifano and Carmassi among others.

The castle also holds the Palatine Chapel with stucco work by the Serpotta brothers and the relic of Sant’Anna.

Opening hours and tickets (Museo Civico di Castelbuono, checked on 19 October 2026):

Period	Hours
November-March	every day, 9.30 am-4.45 pm
April-October	every day, 9.30 am-1 pm and 3-6.30 pm

Full price 6 euros, reduced 4 euros, residents 2 euros, free up to age 7. Tickets on site only. Ticket office +39 0921 671211. The history of the castle is in our guide to the Madonie castles.

Francesco Minà Palumbo natural history museum, Castelbuono

Francesco Minà Palumbo was a doctor and naturalist from Castelbuono who explored the Madonie between 1837 and 1899, collecting plants, animals, rocks, fossils and archaeological finds (Ente Parco delle Madonie). After decades in temporary homes, the museum is now in the former convent of San Francesco.

Inside are about 500 fossils of corals, gastropods and bivalves, collections of insects, rocks and minerals, prehistoric finds from around Castelbuono, and objects from the Gonato paper mill and the Martinetto foundry. The last corridor is devoted to manna.

The museum reopened on 19 July 2025 with a new layout, two dioramas and a visitor app (Balarm). The story of manna is in our article on Castelbuono manna; the town is on the Castelbuono page.

Targa Florio Museum in Collesano

It opened on 27 June 2004 in a former Dominican convent next to the town hall, on the initiative of the historian Giacinto Gargano (Ente Parco delle Madonie). It displays the bronze trophies of 1921, 1932, 1937, 1950 and 1965, helmets and race suits of drivers such as Vaccarella, Elford, Merzario and Munari, a multimedia room with period films and, since December 2025, a wing dedicated to Elio Lombardo.

The Ente Parco warns that opening times change often and the council posts closure notices: phone first. The story of the race is in our Targa Florio guide.

Petralia Sottana: Museo Collisani and geology section

The Museo Civico Antonio Collisani is in the former 15th-century prison at corso Paolo Agliata 100 and has an archaeology section with the Collisani collection (Ente Parco delle Madonie).

The geology section named after the geologist Giuseppe Torre, part of the Madonie UNESCO Global Geopark, has moved to Palazzo Pucci Martinez, the seat of the Ente Parco, and reopened with a new layout: rocks and fossils of the Madonie, interactive screens, augmented reality viewers, installations on the Raffo salt mine and Cefalù Cathedral. The Ente Parco asks visitors to book.

According to the Ente Parco page, the museum opens Monday to Friday from 9 am to 1.30 pm and on Tuesday and Thursday also from 3 to 6 pm (phone +39 0921 641811); groups must book. The town is on the Petralia Sottana page.

MACSS, the salt museum of Petralia Soprana

In the Italkali mine at Raffo, a hamlet of Petralia Soprana, rock salt is still extracted from a deposit formed about six million years ago. In the tunnels is MACSS, the SottoSale Museum of Contemporary Art: 40 rock salt sculptures made over six Biennials, a chapel dedicated to Saint Barbara and industrial archaeology finds (Balarm).

Because the mine is working, visits are limited to authorised days, by booking, and children under 12 are not allowed in. Special openings, such as those of the Borghi dei Tesori festival, are announced case by case. The town is on the Petralia Soprana page.

The museums of Polizzi Generosa

Polizzi has four museums:

• Civico Museo Archeologico, in the former Jesuit College on via Garibaldi: among other things, 50 grave assemblages from the Hellenistic necropolis of contrada San Pietro, discovered in 1992.
• Museo Ambientalistico Madonita (MAM), on piazza Castello: more than 400 specimens of Sicilian and Madonie wildlife, including rare or extinct species, in reconstructed habitats from the sea to the high mountains. According to the Ente Parco it opens by appointment.
• Museo dell’Abies nebrodensis, in the Palazzo di Città at Discesa Collegio 2: five multimedia rooms on the Madonie fir and the roughly thirty trees rediscovered in 1957 in the Vallone Madonna degli Angeli.
• Museo Etnoantropologico, with farming tools donated by Alfino and Giuseppina Zafarana.

The trail to the real fir trees is on the Abies nebrodensis page. The town is on the Polizzi Generosa page.

Gangi: the Palazzo Sgadari museum system

The 19th-century Palazzo Sgadari houses four museums (Consorzio Cefalù Madonie Himera):

• Archaeological Museum, with finds from the 7th-6th century BC to the early Christian period, from Monte Alburchia, contrada Comune and Gangivecchio;
• Pinacoteca Gianbecchina, with 96 works by the Sicilian painter, showing farmers, workers and women working in the fields;
• Weapons Museum, from Giuseppe Franco’s collection, with muzzle-loading guns, Winchesters and revolvers;
• Ethnographic Museum of rural life, in the former garage, with the stravola, a wheelless wooden sledge pulled by oxen.

The town is on the Gangi page.

Caltavuturo: Museo Civico Don Giuseppe Guarnieri

It is in the former 18th-century convent of San Francesco and opened in 2007 (Ente Parco delle Madonie). It has four archaeology rooms, opened in 2013 with the Soprintendenza: prehistory of the area, Terravecchia and the Casale church, the Hellenistic settlement of Monte Riparato, and the Pagliuzza coin hoard (late 3rd to late 2nd century BC).

Inside is also the MOPS, the Museum of Sicilian Puppet Theatre of the Madonie, founded in 2008 with Angelo Sicilia’s collection, with a theatre where Palermo-style puppet shows are staged. The museum also has a rocks and minerals section and a sacred art section with 365 holy cards, one for every day of the year. The town is on the Caltavuturo page.

Other museums

• Museo Etnoantropologico delle Madonie, Geraci Siculo: on via Don Orione, devoted to objects of rural life. Geraci also has the Casa Museo Piccione d’Avola, a private ethnographic collection, and the Treasury of the Chiesa Madre. Page: Geraci Siculo.
• Museo Civico di contrada Muratore, Castellana Sicula: outside the village, in a building that incorporates a late Roman hypogeum. It shows finds from the 2001 and 2004 excavations, which uncovered a probable Roman village with a bath complex. Page: Castellana Sicula.
• Museo Trame di filo, Isnello: embroidery and textiles made with filet, or modano, and drawn-thread work, techniques still used in Isnello. Page: Isnello.
• Museo della Manna, Pollina: in the former town hall on piazza Duomo, on the manna tapped from ash trees from July to September. Page: Pollina.
• Water museum, Scillato: in the Paraturi mill, along the route of 13 mills built between 1156 and 1800 (Ente Parco). Page: Scillato.
• Museo Centro Ambientale, Gratteri: at via del Sole 30; visits are arranged with the person in charge (Ente Parco delle Madonie). Page: Gratteri.
• Museo Fra Giammaria da Tusa, Gibilmanna: ten rooms in the Capuchin friary above Cefalù, with a 17th-century reed-pipe organ and the friary library.

How to plan your visit

Opening hours of small museums change often and many open on weekday mornings or by appointment. Before you set off:

1. Phone the museum or the town council the day before.
2. In villages without fixed hours, ask the tourist office or the town hall whether a visit can be arranged.
3. Combine nearby museums on the same day: Castelbuono (Museo Civico and Minà Palumbo), Polizzi Generosa (four museums in the centre), Petralia Sottana and Petralia Soprana.

For getting between villages see the Madonie roads page. Other themes of Madonie history are in the History and culture section.