Acquario e museo etnografico del Po

About the museum

The museum was born in the 1970s from an idea by Giuseppe Fornasari, a young craftsman from Monticelli d'Ongina, and a group of friends who organised the Mostra degli Hobby (hobby exhibition). With the consent of the parish priest, who owned the Rocca, they obtained a section of the castle's cellars, cleared it of accumulated material and uncovered the floor bricks and the sail vaults. In these rooms they gathered tools, objects and testimonies of life along the Po and in the plain between Piacenza and Cremona, largely donated by the local population. The group of volunteers later formed the Gruppo Culturale Mostre, which now runs the museum.

The collection was catalogued by use: kitchen, cellar, agriculture and the work of woodcutters and fishermen. Over time the route has been enriched with an aquarium of about twenty tanks, presenting the fish species of the middle course of the Po and of the Bassa padana (Po Valley lowlands). Nearby is the Po museum, with boats and tools of fishermen and gravel diggers, and a palaeontological and archaeological section with mammoth remains, bison, deer and elk horns, and finds from the Roman period.

The most precious piece is a prehistoric dugout canoe in excellent condition, which was restored, a process documented on the museum's website. The castle also contains a small frescoed chapel painted by the Bembos.

Highlights

• Aquarium with about twenty tanks of Po fish
• Well-preserved prehistoric dugout canoe, restored
• Boats, nets and tools of fishermen and gravel diggers
• Palaeontological section with mammoth remains and Roman-period archaeology
• Museum of rural life with tools and reconstructed rooms

Permanent exhibitions

• Acquario del Po – About twenty tanks with fish species of the middle Po and the Po Valley lowlands, with scientific information cards, and two dioramas with reptiles, mammals and birds.
• Museo etnografico del Po – Boats, nets, harpoons and tools of fishermen and gravel diggers, with a restored prehistoric dugout canoe, and a palaeontological and archaeological section.
• Museo della civiltà contadina – Farm tools and machinery, kitchen and cellar utensils, and reconstructed rooms of family life in the past.

Founded

1974

Operated by

Gruppo Culturale Mostre

Admission & discounts

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Accessibility

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Kids & families

The aquarium with Po fish and the traditional boats make the route interesting for younger children too; the museum does not list offers specifically for children.

Getting there & parking

The museum is in the cellars of the Rocca Pallavicino-Casali, at Piazza Casali 10, in the centre of Monticelli d'Ongina.

Amenities & dining

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

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