The Naturalistic Civic Museum of the Prenestini Mountains first opened on June 9th 2001 and has been a cultural and natural landmark in the town of Capranica Prenestina and the Prenestini Mountains for the past 20 years. The museum is located inside the old Palazzo Barberini which was built between the XIV and the XV century and still preserves its sixteenth-century structure.

The museum installations are made up of digital dioramas that describe the biodiversity of the Prenestini Mountains and its protected areas, as well as the protected areas of the Capranica Prenestina. Through the use of interactive storytelling, the 7 dioramas that make up the museums installation illustrate the arid prairie habitat, the natural monument “Prenestino Chestnut grove”, the mixed forest, the biodiversity of ditches, the karst caves environment and the biodiversity of the Mount Guadagnolo cliff.

In addition to offering guided tours and educational activities for schools of all levels, the museum regularly arranges nature excursions, nature drawing workshops and topic meetings aimed at getting to know the territory and its biodiversity.

The museum constantly conducts scientific research on the habitat and wild species of the Prenestini Mountains and started monitoring the activity of wolves on the entire territory in 2023 with the goal to estimate the size of its population and to establish a series of good practices to facilitate the coexistence between the predator and farming activities.

The Museum is part of the OMR (Regional Museum Organization)