San Martino in Rio, a delightful village in the province of Reggio Emilia rich in history and culture, is home to the Museum of Agriculture and the Rural World, which collects, preserves and enhances the human testimonies and experience of peasant and artisan life in the middle plains of Reggio Emilia, as it was until the beginning of the 20th century, before agricultural mechanization. Reachable in a little more than 20 minutes by car from our farmhouse, the museum is housed inside the monumental Rocca Estense and is the result of years of research promoted and conducted by Enzo Carretti, who, together with a group of enthusiasts, has collected and preserved a great deal of material, oral and documentary evidence of the local peasant world.
The museum is a journey through the customs and times of sharecropping, which covered on these lands, from the Middle Ages to the first half of the twentieth century, up to 80 percent of the territory under consideration and, with its contractual characteristics, forged the peasant life of these places. The museum’s particularly broad and articulated tour is developed through 12 sections devoted to the land, agricultural production, hemp, chip and sorghum processing, food processing of milk, wheat and pork, the rural dwelling, the cycle of life, the cultivation of vines and wine, and the craft work of the carpenter/coop maker, tailor, shoemaker and farrier. The last section is devoted to the working tradition and productive dimension of the family of Raffaele Bertani, an early 20th century agricultural master who contributed to local agricultural development with rational techniques and the use of different contracts, such as fixed or occasional wages and rent.
Especially suitable for families with children, the museum also has an educational room furnished with toys, children’s clothing, primers, desks and school books, in which some aspects of children’s lives in the past are illustrated. The exhibit is enriched by several large paintings, depicting scenes of rural life, by Reggio Emilia painters Anselmo Govi and Giannino Tamagnini. Of notable interest inside: the collection of tower clocks from Otello Gallingani’s private collection; a stone plaque from the 1600s with engraved units of measurement from the square of San Martino in Rio; a beautiful wooden chariot, depicting “curses,” mythological figures used to ward off misfortune such as, for example, the rooster pecking the head of the snake; and a Bronze Age plow from Prato di Correggio, the oldest in Italy.
OPENING HOURS.
Saturday 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. free admission
Sundays and holidays 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m./6:30 p.m. admission fee
TARIFFS
- full ticket € 2.00
- reduced ticket € 1.00 for children from 12 to 18 years old, university students, over 65 and groups over 10 people
- free ticket for children under 12, disabled and accompanying persons, residents and donors of materials to the museum
For more information visit the official web site of Museo dell’Agricoltura e del Mondo Rurale.
(photo by the Museum of Agriculture and Rural World)
AGRITURISMO IL BRUGNOLO
Welcome to il Brugnolo
If you’re looking for completely independent apartments surrounded by greenery you really are in the right place here!
In fact, Brugnolo is immersed in the green nature of the Emilian countryside. For your relaxation, for that of your children, and again for the runs of your 4-legged friends, you will have 6000 square meters of park at your disposal!
