Museo e biblioteca Clarence Bicknell

The Clarence Bicknell Museum and Library stands in a garden on Via Romana in Bordighera. Built between 1886 and 1888 to a design by English architect Clarence Tait, it was the first museum created in western Liguria and houses the botanical and archaeological collections of its founder, Clarence Bicknell.

Why it matters

Bicknell made Bordighera a base for the study of Riviera botany and the rock engravings of Monte Bego. The museum was built to preserve and display the collections he gathered. Today the Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri maintains the museum and its library, a research collection of about 115,000 items, including photographs, periodicals, medieval and early modern documents, and Bicknell's own manuscripts.

What to notice

The rectangular hall has a portico of four columns and an interior plan inspired by an Anglican church. Bicknell decorated the two fireplaces with floral and animal motifs, a Dante quotation and the crests of collaborators. In the garden, two large ficus trees frame the museum; the larger Ficus macrophylla has been listed among Italy's monumental trees. A monument to Bicknell and slabs of Roman road from Albintimilium, ancient Ventimiglia, bring the garden's archaeological and botanical interests together.

Context and history

Bicknell settled in Bordighera and devoted himself to natural science. His publications include Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Riviera (1885) and Flora of Bordighera and San Remo (1896), alongside his studies of the Monte Bego engravings. After his death, the museum passed to his nephew Edward Elhanan Berry and Berry's wife Margaret Serocold. In 1932 they helped Nino Lamboglia establish the Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri, and Margaret later transferred the museum and collections to the Institute. The library includes the Fondo Rossi, with documents and statutes from the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries, and the Fondo Bicknell of the founder's manuscripts.