Aboca Museum – Bourbon del Monte Palace
The Aboca Museum, housed inside the 16th-century Bourbon del Monte Palace in Sansepolcro, is one of Europe’s most comprehensive museums dedicated to the history of medicinal herbs and pharmaceutical botany. Its collections trace the evolution of herbal medicine from ancient Egypt and classical antiquity through the Renaissance herbalists to the modern era, displayed across elaborately restored period rooms filled with rare manuscripts, antique pharmacy jars, and original distillation apparatus.
At a glance
- Type
- Pharmaceutical botany museum inside a Renaissance palace
- Period
- Palace built 16th–17th century; museum founded by Aboca SpA
- Style
- Renaissance Tuscan palazzo
- Location
- Via Niccolò Aggiunti 75, 52037 Sansepolcro AR, Tuscany, Italy
Overview
The Aboca Museum occupies the Bourbon del Monte Palace, a distinguished Renaissance structure in the historic hilltop town of Sansepolcro — birthplace of the painter Piero della Francesca. Founded by Aboca, a leading Italian company specialising in natural herbal medicines, the museum presents more than 30,000 items arranged across multiple themed rooms. It stands as a rare institutional effort to document the full cultural and scientific history of plant-based healing traditions in Europe.
History
The Bourbon del Monte Palace takes its name from the noble Bourbon del Monte family, who owned it from the 16th century. Sansepolcro itself has deep roots in medieval trade and Renaissance culture, sitting in the upper Tiber Valley on the Tuscan-Umbrian border. Aboca acquired and restored the palace in the late 20th century, converting it into a public museum that reflects the company’s mission to connect modern botanical medicine with its historical antecedents. The restoration respected the original architectural fabric while creating state-of-the-art display environments.
What you see
Visitors move through richly decorated rooms containing antique apothecary cabinets, hand-illustrated botanical manuscripts, alembics and distillation equipment, Majolica drug jars, and original printed herbals dating from the 15th century onward. A dedicated section examines Egyptian papyri on medicinal plants, while another explores Renaissance-era pharmacopoeia. The palace’s architecture — stone vaulted ceilings, terracotta floors, and courtyard loggia — provides a fitting frame for the collection. Temporary exhibitions frequently expand the permanent display with themed botanical and art-science crossover subjects.
Cultural significance
The Aboca Museum preserves a category of material culture — the tools, texts, and traditions of herbal pharmacy — that is rarely assembled at this scale and quality anywhere in Europe. By anchoring the collection in a historic palace in Piero della Francesca’s hometown, the museum connects two strands of Renaissance intellectual achievement: pictorial art and natural science. It is recognised as a reference institution for the history of pharmacy and ethnobotany in Italy.
Practical information
- Address
- Via Niccolò Aggiunti 75, 52037 Sansepolcro AR, Italy
- Opening hours
- Check the official Aboca Museum website for current hours and admission prices
- Admission
- Paid entry; concessions available
- Coordinates
- 43.5708° N, 12.1430° E
Getting there
Sansepolcro is located in the upper Tiber Valley, approximately 40 km east of Arezzo and 100 km southeast of Florence. By car, take the E78 motorway from Arezzo toward Cesena and exit at Sansepolcro. Regular bus services connect Sansepolcro with Arezzo and Perugia. The museum is situated in the historic centre, within walking distance of the town’s main square and the Museo Civico that holds Piero della Francesca’s masterpiece, the Resurrection.
Sources & resources
- Aboca Museum official website
- Cultural Heritage Online — Italian heritage place guides