Civico Museo Etnografico “Ostana – Alta Valle Po”

Civic ethnographic museum with reconstructed rooms of Occitan rural life in the Alta Valle Po, set up in Ostana in 1996.

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About the museum

The Civico Museo Etnografico di Ostana was set up in 1996 to preserve the memory of a past world and, above all, to make known the variety and complexity of the Occitan community of the Alta Valle Po. The rooms are arranged as reconstructions of living and working spaces, accompanied by explanatory panels, documents and photographs.

The route begins with the history of the village and a map from 1900 showing place names in Occitan; it then leads into a carpenter’s workshop with original tools, most of which belonged to a craftsman from the hamlet of San Bernardo. This is followed by the stable and the cellar, the rooms where life was lived in winter, with furniture, cradles and tools for milk and butter, and the clothing room, with garments worn until the fifties, hemp fabrics and a sewing machine from the late 19th century.

The last section is devoted to farming and schooling, with tools for field work, containers for cereals and buckwheat, a reconstructed early 20th-century schoolroom and a corner of the shoemaker. A display case shows antique jewellery, watches and lamps, and a copy of the Statuti di Ostana from 1425. The museum also hosts periodic photo exhibitions on the landscape and farming life of the village.

Highlights

Carpenter’s workshop with original early 20th-century tools
Reconstructed stable and cellar, with cradles, furniture and tools for milk
Clothing worn until the fifties and hemp fabrics
Early 20th-century schoolroom and shoemaker’s corner
Copy of the Statuti di Ostana from 1425