Guided Tour of the Beck-Peccoz Regional Museum of alpine fauna
Baron Luigi Beck-Peccoz, descendant of an aristocratic Walser family, in 1882 arranged for his trophy collection to be placed in a building expressly built in his native town: Gressoney-Saint-Jean. In this way he gave birth to the Beck -Peccoz Regional Museum of alpine fauna (Alpenfaunamuseum Beck-Peccoz), built at the beginning of the twentieth century next to the baron’s villa, Villa Margherita.
Inside the building are displayed the rare and rich collection of hunting trophies, antique weapons, and other precious family heirlooms such as portraits, paintings, books and publications on Alpine fauna and flora.
The building complete with collections of trophies and antique weapons was bought by Regione Valle d’Aosta in 1986.
The collection of around 2000 pieces (horns and antlers mounted on shields) includes chamois, rock goats, deer and roes and various trophies of local and exotic wild fauna. The quality of the trophies and interesting examples of different types of bone malformation give historical and scientific significance to the collection.
The guided tour of the Alpine Fauna Museum of Gressoney includes all floors of the building.
The ground floor, originally intended as a dwelling, was set up according to exhibition criteria aimed at illustrating the main scientific aspects of the main mountain vertebrates.
On the first floor of the museum, in addition to the baron’s hunting trophies, there is also a small but very interesting armory. A collection of long, short, shooting and military weapons is displayed in the original display cases, comprising 90 pieces.
Particularly interesting are muzzle-loading and breech-loading long hunting weapons. These are mostly combined weapons: ball and pellets, billing, drilling and over-and-under barrels.
The visit to the Beck Peccoz Museum in Gressoney can be combined with a guided tour of the village as well as the fairytale Savoy Castle.
Discover here the guided tours in the museums of the Aosta Valley.
