National Museum of Palazzo Mansi

The National Museum of Palazzo Mansi is housed in one of the most luxurious mansions of the town, built between the end of XVI^th and the beginning of the XVII^th century. The Mansi family bought the building in 1616 and transformed it into a representative palace between 1687 and 1692: austere on the outside and sumptuous in its interiors according to the Baroque taste of the time.
When it became state property in 1965 the palace had lost most of its original furniture which had been scattered and sold on antique fairs in the middle of the past century; the magnificent first floor, however, decorated with frescoes and precious tapestries, was near to intact. Between 1965 and 1977 the palace was restored and adapted to house a museum that was opened to the public in 1977; it also contained an Art Gallery with paintings from the Medici and Grand Dukes' collections.
During the 80's renovation works on the whole structure and on the museum have been completed together with the restoration of the monumental apartments. The lost original furniture was replaced by pieces from other town mansions and the Art Gallery enriched by acquisitions from private collections. Today the rooms on the ground floor are used for temporary exhibitions, while the second floor hosts the exhibition of XIX^th century painting from Lucca as well as the textiles section.