Nocito Coral Museum

The Nocito Coral Museum in Sciacca, Italy, displays a vast collection of coral artifacts, ancient jewelry, and historical documents, narrating the rich history of coral in the region.

Planning your visit

Sciacca on Sicily's southwest coast built a coral industry on an accident of geology. In 1831 an underwater volcanic eruption created and then sank an island offshore, and the disturbance killed vast coral beds — the dead coral, mineralised over decades, produced Sciacca coral, distinguished by an orange-brown colour found nowhere else and by the fact that it was harvested dead rather than cut from living reef.

Three great harvests in the nineteenth century supplied European jewellers, and the material has been effectively exhausted since.

The Nocito museum holds coral artefacts, historic jewellery, goldsmithing work and documents narrating that history, alongside fossil corals and material on the maritime culture of the town.

Sciacca also has thermal springs, a ceramics tradition and a notable carnival.

Bookable options are guided museum tours. Current availability is shown below.