The Story of a Centuries‑Old Enterprise and a Museum That Preserves a One‑of‑a‑Kind Legacy
For nearly ten centuries, the Amarelli family has safeguarded and transformed one of the Mediterranean’s oldest treasures: Calabrian licorice. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Calabrian licorice is the finest in the world. It’s a product with noble roots, whose very origins lie in an entrepreneurial history dating back to the early eleventh century and which, since the mid‑eighteenth century onward, has found its home in the Amarelli ‘concio’: the traditional processing facility. From this extraordinary tradition emerges one of Italy’s most captivating corporate museums: the Giorgio Amarelli Licorice Museum, inaugurated in 2001 and now a national landmark for industrial storytelling and cultural tourism in Calabria.
The roots of licorice, Glycyrrhiza glabra, have been known for 3,500 years. They were first cited in Hippocratic and ancient Chinese texts. These roots grow wild along the Ionian coast, producing primary ingredients of a unique flavor. As early as the 1500s, Calabrian feudal families extracted its precious juice. Among these families were the Amarellis, who have a rich history of agriculture, military service, and cultural engagement. In 1731, the concio was born: the beating heart of the Amarelli production and today an extraordinary example of industrial archaeology. Between steam boilers from 1907 (now displayed as museum pieces) and modern machinery that coexists with centuries‑old manual techniques, the company continues its artisanal processing of licorice, exporting its products across Europe, North America, South America, and Australia.
The Licorice Museum: A Multisensory Journey
Housed in the 15th‑century Palazzo Amarelli, the museum offers an immersive narrative experience spanning ten centuries of family and entrepreneurial history. The exhibition begins with documents, engravings, photographs, and period clothing that portray the ancient lineage, revealing a surprising ‘ante litteram’ holding company active in agriculture, culture, and politics. From agricultural tools to early estate operations, and from 18th‑ and 19th‑century extraction techniques to the evolution of production, visitors discover a world where every phase becomes a chapter of identity.
Inside the museum, visitors will find:
- 18th‑century millstones, original tools, presses, and work instruments
- accounting ledgers, administrative correspondence, payroll books, and materials documenting the company’s economic life across centuries
- a faithfully reconstructed 19th‑century shop
- a section dedicated to the electrical revolution, featuring historic Edison lamps and pylons that recount the arrival of electricity at the concio.
The Museum Office, located next to the museum itself, oversees the Amarelli Archive which was declared to be of “particularly important historical interest” by the Ministry of Culture in 2012. The Office preserves documents from 1445 to the present, along with press collections and video archives.
Today, the museum is far more than an exhibition space. It is an active cultural hub. Free multilingual tours, school programs, conferences, academic research and collaborations with tour operators transform each visit into an educational and sensory experience. The Alessandro Amarelli Auditorium hosts cultural events, talks, and presentations every summer, while the Open‑Air Museum guides visitors from past to present in a 10,000 square meter (approximately 108,000 square feet) outdoor display of historic machinery and centuries-old olive trees. The outdoor guide ends at the Factory Store and Factory Café, spaces dedicated to tastings and gastronomic experimentation.
