The Museo di Paleontologia e Scienze Naturali dell’Aspromonte, which occupies premises covering a floor space of about 300 square metres, which once acted as the District Court, contains a number of rooms and a large central hall where the showcases take visitors on an ideal journey aimed at heightening their awareness of the magical flow of time.

At the entrance there are some maps of the The National Park of Aspromonte – part of Bova’s municipal territory – which outline the boundaries of the Park and highlight its existing natural resources.

The Museum is an outstanding reference point for researchers and enthusiasts because it can provide important material for studies regarding Calabria, in particular Reggio Calabria. The museum is a Southern-Italian unicum because it hosts important finds illustrating significant stages in the evolutionary history of Calabria.

The exhibits include a sizeable collection of fossils of the fauna and flora of Calabria (about 15,000), eloquent paleo-geographical testimonies of the climate and environment of a period ranging from between 120 million and 100,000 years ago. The collection has been enhanced with finds from different parts of the world to help visitors understand the evolution of life down through the different ages.

The Museum, which opened in December 2012, welcomes schools which take part in an educational workshop called “A day as a palaeontologist”. First, the pupils, while observing the exhibits, are conducted on an imaginary tour of the various eras to help them grasp the rudiments of palaeontology in a user-friendly way. Then, they are invited to play at being little palaeontologists: find, clean, examine some fossils, classify them and compile a technical data sheet for each one. At the end of this explorative workshop, the pupils receive a certificate confirming their status as little paleontologists while they make a gift to the museum of a drawing or a comment regarding their day’s experience.

The Museum also acts as host to associations and groups of visitors interested in Calabria, in particular the Aspromonte area, from a geological and paleontological point of view.