Porto Cesareo, a tourist destination of undisputed natural beauty and landscape, is able to attract thousands of visitors to its territory, not only for its environmental characteristics, but also for its history, culture and... science!

In the town of Porto Cesareo, in fact, there is a Museum of Marine Biology that, thanks to the work of many expert hands, arouses interest and curiosity, as it does not represent a mere collection of antique pieces showcased, but allows you to relive what happens in the depths of our sea: you can admire different qualities of fauna, but there are reconstructions of coastal stretches and seabeds with the relative floristic characteristics. The walls of the museum, frescoed in order to reproduce the coastal stretches populated by colonies of Cosmerodius albus (the very rare white heron), create the illusion of being directly on the coast. Not to mention the reproduction of the Monk seal and the turtle Dermochelide cariacea.

The Museum was founded in 1966, when Professor Pietro Parenzan decided to donate to the University of Lecce the account of fifty years of travels and studies of the flora and fauna of the Ionian Sea, as well as his own archive and library.

From the beginning it was decided to give a different cut to the museum that should not be a mere exhibition of relics, but a "sensible" reconstruction of a habitat unknown to most, to give everyone the opportunity to know another dimension of our seas, that goes beyond the promenade and summer bathing.

The museum collects over 900 exhibits sorted and classified, in order to obtain a detailed reconstruction of the surrounding environment. There are precious shells collected along the coast of Salento that are characterized by their state of conservation, as it was decided not to clean them up or restore them showing them as well as the sea has donated them: covered with parasites, encrustations and algae.

The exhibition includes sections dedicated to sea monsters and aquatic flora.