The Museo regionale Agostino Pepoli is an art, archaeology and local history museum in Trapani. Established in 1906-1908 as the civic museum by count Agostino Pepoli and initially based on the private collection of count Sieri Pepoli and Neapolitan paintings donated by general Giovanbattista Fardella, it is based in a former 14th century Carmelite monastery next to the Basilica-santuario di Maria Santissima Annunziata. In 1921 it acquired count Francesco Hernandez di Erice's collection of cribs, ceramics and archaeological objects.
The museum houses a large collection of paintings, cribs, sculpture and decorative arts, including works by Antonello Gagini and in coral and silver. The paintings include works by Titian (Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata) and Giacomo Balla (a portrait of Nunzio Nasi), a 15th-century Valencian Madonna and Child with Angels, a 1380 Pietà by Roberto d'Oderisio and a St Andrew by the Flemish artist Geronimo Gerardi. It also includes the 'Tesoro della Madonna', product of several donations to the Madonna di Trapani. The collection includes archaeological remains from the province (in 2009 Edipuglia published a catalogue of the Museum's archaeological collections) and historical relics of the Risorgimento era from Trapani, including a Bourbon-era guillotine and the ensign of the Lombardo, which brought Garibaldi and 'The Thousand' to Sicily.
References:The Château du Lude is one of the many great châteaux of the Loire Valley in France. Le Lude is the most northerly château of the Loire Valley and one of the last important historic castles in France, still inhabited by the same family for the last 260 years. The château is testimony to four centuries of French architecture, as a stronghold transformed into an elegant house during the Renaissance and the 18th century. The monument is located in the valley of Le Loir. Its gardens have evolved throughout the centuries.