MUSEUM OF THE RURAL CIVILIZATION OF SALENTO. ETHNOGRAPHIC SECTION.

The civic museum of Giuggianello was inaugurated on October 16th, 2010 on the occasion of the 6th festival of the small towns of Italy.

It was born out of a deep conviction that a museum, despite representing some sort of “fiction”, still proposes reading paths aimed at identifying strong points of synergy between the present and the past, between rural civilization and the globalized hyper-technological society, amplifying messages and moments of confrontation and exchange.

The museum of Giuggianello was imagined as a structure that can be experienced and frequented from, first and foremost, the locals, as well as the ordinary visitors like schools, tourists and other curious people; a place that might become a meeting place where conversations, dialogues and confrontations can be held; therefore, a place, that isn’t reserved, separated or hidden from anyone.

For this reason, it was decided to establish the museum in the centre of the town, in Via Roma, at the ancient Lubelli castle.

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The museum is structured in three different sections: Ethnographic, Archeological and Archival. Out of these three sections, only the first one was finished and opened to the public; the preparation of the other two, on the other hand, is still ongoing.

The words of Primo Levi welcome the visitor, and his warning does not only serve as a moral pillar against every attempt at emptying humanity, it also serves to propose a conductor line of the entire path.

“Consider each one how much value, how much meaning is embedded even in the smallest of our daily habits, in the hundred objects of ours that the humblest beggar possesses: a handkerchief, a letter, the photograph of a dear person. These things are a part of us, almost as limbs of our body; nor is it conceivable to be deprived of it in our world, that we will soon find others to replace the old ones, other objects that are ours as keepers and creators of our memories.”

In the entrance, a panel describes the principal phases in which the birth and the realization of the ethnographic section are articulated; contrary to what often happens, this exhibit does not come from different collections already organized by a single person or group. The entire museum is the fruit of a careful and long-time collection of everyday objects and tools belonging to different professions donated by the locals and deposited in makeshift places in view of the preparation of the ethnographic section: then, the members of the Culture Centre, the artisans and the members of the National Civil Service took care of the process of recleaning and restoring with great care and dedication.

Two large objects catch the eye right away, a crusher press, placed in the middle of the room and, on the right side, a “pila”, a traditional stone sink.

The left wall at the entrance is strictly dedicated to objects of affection; in the various display cabinets that follow each other, as a matter of fact, are exposed: a darning wooden egg with a couple of Man Ray’s works on the background; a series of old charcoal flatirons with a Marcel Duchamp piece on the background; further on, you may catch a sight of the “farsura”, a pot used to cook the “Paparotta”, typical dish that the locals would eat every morning before leaving to go to work in the fields. The recipe consisted of legume residues and vegetables mixed together with chunks of fried bread and olive oil.

The reed bag or “sporteddhra” tells episodes of life and death.

The first one was used to contain vegetable shopping, the second one for smaller, more delicate foods such as eggs or flour, to transport the food offering to families that were hit by a bereavement in the family or a chicken to donate to a parturient woman, so that she could feed on the delicious broth; in the sporteddhra, moreover, people used to lay an unwanted infant, still in swaddling clothes, near the house of a “good” family that would guarantee him a better, more comfortable, future.

Speaking of which, it’s interesting to notice, a document relative to an “esposto”, exposed (how abandoned kids were called) placed in one of the display cabinets at the entrance of the museum.

From the vestibule you pass on to the corridor dedicated to crop rotation. On the wall are hung, one in front of the other, two harrows, one made with iron and one made with wood (la traia) that were meant to prepare the soil for sowing. Underneath, two iron ploughs.

From this moment on, the museum touches on some of the most recurring themes regarding the rural and artisanal civilization: cereal crop, pastoralism, weaving, professions; in the blacksmith’s room, the visitor can observe different horseshoes compositions as well as handmade forged nails and, furthermore, every tool needed for forging, including craft tools necessary for closing doors.

In the first room, on the left side of the corridor, after a display of numerous types of sickles, the great wooden plough and the gorgeous wagon (lu trainu) stand out from other artifacts, mainly because of their size. The first room is dedicated to grain processing, from the reaping phase to the breadmaking phase, and to pastoralism. Nonetheless, there are references to other domestic activities like the traditional act of doing laundry in big crete vases (lu cofinu). 

The following room is the one furnished with a fireplace, a loom, a bed and the peculiar “mattrabanca”. 

The second room is entirely dedicated to Nicola Cesari, museum collaborator who sadly passed away last July after an incessant illness. On the far right, there’s a space reserved to his silk-screen printing work bearing the mark of his Gassosa company “Cesari” opened by Raffaele Cesari, father of Nicola.

The next subject in our display is weaving, divided according to the different phases that distinguish the activity: ‘ncannulare, ordire, moicare, nchire and tissire; on top, on a panel, stands out the reproduction of a panoramic view that characterizes Giuggianello’s territory, the so-called “Masso della Vecchia”, a giant lenticular boulder that lays, like the cap of a mushroom, on a basement.

This large rock, also known as “Furticiddhu te la vecchia te lu nanni”, is placed next to the elderly spinner, in other words, the ogre’s wife, who used to spin sitting on “the bed” (another, even bigger, boulder found not too far away from the other); “lu furticiddhu” is, on the other hand, the washer that works as a fly-wheel and favoures the rotation of the spindle.

On the far left, a simulation of a well has been built and the tools necessary for supplying water were placed right next to it. Giuggianello’s inhabitants enjoy the protection of Saint Christopher, patron saint of water, who is said to intervene in order to wish for rainfall. In addition to that, Saint Christopher is also said to be capable of driving out any storm with the help of the ringing of the bells.

Entry to the museum costs € 2,50 per person.

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