Museo Missionario Cinese e di Storia Naturale, Ethnographic and natural history museum in Sava, Italy
The Museo Missionario Cinese e di Storia Naturale is an ethnographic, natural history, and religious museum in Sava, housed inside the historic Convent of San Francesco. It is divided into two main sections: one displaying objects from China and Taiwan such as coins, vases, weapons, paintings, and garments, and another dedicated to natural history with animal skeletons, insects, fossils, and minerals.
The museum opened in 1982, growing out of the work of Padre Tommaso Leopizzi, who gathered objects from missionary journeys to China and the Middle East. The convent that houses it was originally built between the late 19th century and the early 1500s as a Franciscan place of worship.
The museum is housed inside the Convent of San Francesco d'Assisi, and many of the objects on display reflect the everyday life and religious practices of Chinese and Taiwanese communities. Musical instruments, garments, and ritual objects give a direct sense of how faith and daily culture looked in distant places.
Visits to the museum are by reservation, and entry is free, though donations are welcome. The modest size of the space means all the rooms can be explored at an easy pace without needing to plan a long visit.
The museum holds a large herbarium of plants from the Salento region, placed alongside Asian artifacts, drawing a quiet comparison between local and distant nature. Part of the collection came through donations by Padre Egidio Santoro, a missionary who lived in China for many years and brought back objects from his daily life there.
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