In the small town of Montecatini Termi, the Alinari archive will take over the Centro Excelsior Spa and transform it into a hub for higher education and archives.
Since 2020, the Fratelli Alinari archive has been owned by the Region of Tuscany who work to preserve and digitalise the archive of over 5,000,000 photographs, negatives and artefacts created by the brothers.
The photography firm, Fratelli Allinari, was established in Florence in 1852 by Leopoldo, Giuseppe and Romualdo Alinari. They were a pioneering force in photography, documenting important paintings, sculptures, architecture and cultural costumes across Italy. After gaining a prestigious reputation, with their work being displayed Europe-wide in exhibitions, they were commissioned to photograph the Italian royal family. As well as exhibitions, the brothers published catalogues of their photographs, early books including cityscapes of Florence, Lucca, Siena and other Tuscan cities.
Under the management of the president Giorgio van Straten and director Claudia Baroncini, two new locations exhibiting the archive will be built. The main museum will be located in the centre of Florence, in the renovated Santa Maria Novella Complex.
A second hub will open in Montecatini Terme, transforming the once saltwater spa into a haven of photography. The Centro Excelsior Spa, built in 1907 in the style of Art Nouveau with neo-Renaissance touches, will be turned into the House of Photography. The building will keep two-thirds of the Alinari archive and will also include storage facilities to ensure proper care of the photographs and laboratories for restoration and digitalisation. Notably, rooms and studios for higher education programmes in the field of conservation and photographic heritage will also be found in the complex.
The two archives are aimed to be completed and open to the public by 2028. This project not only safeguards the collection but also supports new generations of students in photography and cultural heritage. (Aniela Cabut)
