Description of the attraction
The Diacinto Cestoni Aquarium, named after the famous Italian naturalist of the 17th century, is located in Livorno, at the very end of the city's impressive promenade and Terrazza Mascagni. Originally built for a heliotherapy center, the building was later refurbished to house an aquarium in 1937. During the Second World War, the aquarium was destroyed and restored only in 1950. Ten years later, it was expanded to house the headquarters of the Interuniversity Center for Marine Biology, established by the commune of Livorno and the universities of Bologna, Florence, Modena, Siena, Pisa and Turin, in 1968. At the end of the 20th century, the building of the aquarium was reconstructed again, at the same time part of the embankment between the Orlando brothers' shipyard and Terrazza Mascagni was redesigned. In 2010, the renovated complex was inaugurated to the public.
Diacinto Cestoni's aquarium consists of several buildings. The main building, in the center, is rectangular with two apses on the sides. Nearby is a semicircular building - the result of the latest reconstruction. On the south side, in a cube-shaped building, there are offices. The total exhibition area of the aquarium is 3 thousand square meters. - there are 65 pools per thousand cubic meters of water. The pools are home to about 1200 animals belonging to 150 species. In 2010, this aquarium became the third largest in Italy after the Genoa and Cattolica aquariums.
