Arte Barsanti is the ancient and prize-winning firm established in 1900 by Carmelo Barsanti, who first started the production of alabastrine plaster figures in Bagni di Lucca. Carmelo, who was born in Italy in 1879, emigrated to Rhone, France, where he developed a deep interest for Provençal Nativity scenes.

Around 1900, after he was back to Italy with this new passion and having entered the tradition of Lucca and Garfagnana stucchini (“stucco-workers”), he created a union that would later represent the basis of the huge spread of Italian Nativity scenes: he opened an atelier of plaster figures specialized in religious art in Bagni di Lucca.

That atelier is still there. Handed down from generation to generation, it was passed from Carmelo to his son Fedele, from Fedele to his daughter Maria and her husband Pierangelo Fiori, from them to their son Simone, who’s the present owner. An extraordinary business, which has received the recognition of the European Union.

The sale of the figures has expanded during the years around the whole peninsula, in Europe and even in other continents. Models made by Arte Barsanti have been bought by Pope John Paul II and by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. From December 2009, a Nativity scene by Arte Barsanti has been displayed in the The International Nativity Museum in Bethlehem, while in 2016 another one was given to the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella.