The centrepiece sits in a display case: rare fossils of Anthracotherium, a suiform artiodactyl that between the Eocene and the Oligocene, that is between 50 and 23 million years ago, lived in the marshes and estuaries of this corner of Liguria; it was about 2 metres long and a metre and a half tall. Palazzo Gervino, in the old centre of Sassello, has housed since 2008 the visitor centre of the Beigua regional nature park devoted to the geology and geomorphology of the area; the display opened on 5 July of that year with funding of 190,000 euros from the Liguria region.
What to see
The route is multimedia and moves from room to room: one room on the geoparks of the world and on the international networks the Beigua belongs to, the European one it joined in 2005 and the global network backed by UNESCO, which in 2015 recognised it as a Global Geopark; then a closer look at the Beigua district, and finally the Oligocene section, which reconstructs the tropical forest, the warm sea and the corals that stood where the woods of Sassello are today.
The palaeontological cases come from two nearby deposits: Maddalena-Ponte Prina, within the municipality, and Santa Giustina, in the territory of Stella. They are the two sites that best record the geological evolution of the area, and seeing them explained here, a few kilometres from where they were dug, changes the way you look at the landscape as soon as you are back outside.
Visiting
Palazzo Gervino is at via G.B. Badano 45, in the old centre. The centre also works as the park's tourist information and welcome office and sells hiking maps and educational material. Opening is seasonal and concentrated between July and September, mainly at weekends, so it is worth phoning ahead. Admission is 2 euros for adults and free for children up to 12, for school groups and for residents of Sassello.
Our editors' tip
Linger over the Oligocene section before you leave, because that is where today's landscape finds its explanation: if you then climb towards the Beigua, or simply follow the Erro, you will recognise in the rock what you have just seen reconstructed. And pair the visit with the Perrando museum in the old centre: geology on one side, paintings and ceramics on the other, and the village more or less explains itself in an afternoon.