Our history

“I haven’t given up yet”, says Pallanzotto when he is obliged by Duke Francesco Sforza to overcome huge difficulties. Pallanzotto was the pseudonym of a certain Bertolotto de’ Giorgi di Pallanza, cloth merchant. Having boasted of his wealth and ability to cover the majority of the surface of Lake Maggiore with a ‘cremisile’ fabric, Pallanzotto was invited and then obliged by the Duke of Milan to build the Castello Sforzesco tower at his own expense, later named after him and still called Torre del Pallanzotto today. “I haven’t given up yet” is the motto which the Landscape Museum adopted in 1914, fully aware of the difficulties it faced in achieving its aims.

Museo del Paesaggio (Landscape Museum) was founded in 1909 by Antonio Massara (Meina 1878 – Como 1926).

Massara identified the landscape as the greatest asset of the Verbano region, a value he believed was threatened in its authentic forms by tourism, industry, and real estate speculation. Convinced that the protection of the landscape could not be achieved “from above,” through the constraints of laws, but “from below,” through public awareness, he initiated a campaign of sensitization and dissemination that culminated in the creation of two tools for this purpose: a magazine, “Verbania,” and a museum, the “Historical and Artistic Museum of Verbano and the Adjacent Valleys,” later renamed the Museum of the Landscape. The aim of the museum was to promote knowledge and protection of the landscape and artistic heritage of the Lake Maggiore area.

In line with this mission, the institution has gradually built up a significant collection of paintings and sculptures, characterized by a strong connection to the territory, either in their representations or in the lives of their creators. The collections are divided into the following main sections: Painting, Sculpture, and Archaeological Collection. The collections are accompanied by a library, an important historical archive, and a substantial photographic archive. Since 1914, the Museum has been housed in the historic Palazzo Viani Dugnani, granted on loan by the Municipality of Verbania, and serves as the main exhibition venue for the institution.

1909: Antonio Massara and the multi town council association Pro Verbano founded the Museo Storico Artistico del Verbano e delle Valli adiacenti art and history museum in Pallanza,
1914: the museum was rechristened Museo del Paesaggio and moved to Palazzo Viani Dugnani. Its founders included: the Educational Department, Novara province, Pallanza town hall, Touring Club Italiano, Camera di Commercio di Novara, Banca Popolare di Novara and Banca Popolare di Intra.
1938: Paolo Troubetzkoy’s heirs donated his plaster casts to the museum.
1961: Vittorio Tonolli offered the archaeological finds excavated at Ornavasso by Enrico Bianchetti in the late 19th century to the museum.
1981: with contributions from the Piedmont Region the museum bought 53 works by Arturo Martini.
1988: the Centro Studi del Paesaggio Landscape Study Centre was set up.
1996: the museum’s collections were enlarged with the Arnaldo Tozzi donations (19 paintings by Mario Tozzi) .
1999: at the new Palazzo Biumi Innocenti headquarters a new religion, art and culture section was set up with 715 painted ex votos.
2000: the archaeology section was opened with the Bianchetti collection.
2007: the museum’s third building, called Casa Ceretti, was set up at Verbania Intra.