MuVel – Museo Diffuso della Cultura Contadina di Velva

Dispersed museum in the historic centre of Velva: cellars, workshops and houses of a rural community in the Ligurian hinterland.

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About the museum

MuVel is a dispersed museum: the historic centre of Velva, a rural hamlet at about 410 metres above sea level in the upper Petronio valley behind Sestri Levante, becomes not only the container but an integral part of the museum. The exhibition rooms occupy old cellars, “fondi” (ground-floor storerooms), basements and domestic spaces in several buildings of the village, where objects, tools and furnishings remain in their original context. In the municipal area, mills, oil presses and chestnut driers are preserved in their original state.

The route compares the living spaces of a sharecropping family, a family of middling landowners and artisans, and a landowning family's residence, as well as the cellars of small tenant farmers with those of large landowners. There is also the workshop of the cooper-joiner (falegname-bottaio), linked to wine production, and that of the wheelwright (carraio), which recalls transport along the trade route between the Riviera and the Po Valley. Documents, images and multimedia accompany the visit. Visitors are given a tablet that recognises objects and opens in-depth content.

The museum is a body of the Municipality of Castiglione Chiavarese. It was also created with the “Racine” project of the Interreg Italy-France Maritime 2014-2020 programme, in agreement with the Liguria Region, and the first floor of the Del Re family's residence is being fitted out.

Highlights

Cellars, workshops and houses in the historic centre of Velva
Comparison of a sharecropper's house, a craftsman's house and a landowner's residence
Workshops of the cooper-joiner and the wheelwright
Mills, oil presses and chestnut driers in the area
Tablet with in-depth content