The Puccini Museum at Celle di Pescaglia was set up in 1973, when the Lucchesi nel Mondo Association, transformed for the occasion into a non-profit institution, acquired the building to set up an exhibition of memorabilia and documents donated by Maestro Giacomo's nieces, Alba Del Panta Franceschini and Nelda Giaccai Franceschini.

Iacopo Puccini, great-grandfather of the famous Luccan composer, was born in the house in Celle on 26 January 1712.

Following the death of his father, in 1719 Iacopo moved to Lucca with his mother, Maria Isabella Giusti and brother Michele, where they remained giving rise to the glorious dynasty of musicians. The Puccini family, however, maintained close contact with Celle, not only because they owned property there, but also because they felt strongly attached to the area; generation after generation the family never forgot their place of origin, where they returned for holidays, particularly in the Autumn, after the festival of the Holy Cross.

Giacomo, too, remained closely tied to the little village, where he returned for the last time on 26 October 1924, a few days before his departure for Brussels. He was given a triumphant welcome with 12 laurel and greenery arches, one for each of his works, from the bridge over the Pedogna up to the little square. Here, in the presence of the Maestro, a memorial tablet was inaugurated on the façade of his ancestors' home, now the Museum. The tablet is still there today.

A museum has born

The Association's interest in purchasing the building and managing the museum inside, was justified by the fact that Giacomo Puccini could quite rightly be considered a "banner" of Luccan emigration.
Because Giacomo, who lived during the years of the great exodus, suffered the separation from his brother Michele, who emigrated to Argentina in search of fortune, which alas he never found.
It was also, and above, in this awareness, that the Maestro's niece, Alba Del Panta Franceschini, daughter of Ramele, Giacomo's favourite sister, and the heirs of his sister, Nelda Giaccai Franceschini, concerned that the great composer's mementos might go astray, decided to donate everything in their possession to the Lucchesi nel Mondo Association, upon the latter's undertaking to purchase the former home of the Puccini family at Celle, where the mementos could be preserved as expressly requested by the donators.

Museum mementos

Numerous Puccinian mementos are preserved in the Museum: the bed where Maestro Giacomo was born, the baptismal robe worn by all members of the Puccini family, the crown offered to Giacomo following the success of Le Villi (which he took to the bedside of his dying mother), many photographs relating to the Florentine performance of La Boheme, the piano on which Puccini composed part of Madame Butterfly, later donated to his niece Alba, the gramophone which Thomas Edison gave to the composer, later passed to his sister Ramelde, an abundant collection of letters - addressed mainly to the Franceschini family and Marchese Mansi - cards and music scores, among which the Codice di Celle.

Concerts

Besides running the Museum, the Association has been involved in recent decades, in organising well-supported musical activities and arranging operas, mainly dedicated to the works of Puccini. Concerts are held every summer in the little square in front of the Celle Museum and in September in Lucca, with performances of some of the well-known and lesser-known arias of the Maestro and his contemporaries by young artists and up-and-coming opera singers, many of whom have later become successful professionals on the international scene.