Museo della pietra e degli scalpellini

Ethnographic museum in Castellavazzo dedicated to the trades of the quarryman and the stonecutter and to stone working in the Belluno area.

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About the museum

The museum was founded in Castellavazzo, a small mountain village that has always lived from its connection with stone, on the initiative of a group of enthusiasts, the Gruppo Rosso Bruno, later merged into the Associazione Pietra e Scalpellini di Castellavazzo. Its aim is to bear witness to the old trades of quarryman (cavatore) and stonecutter (scalpellino).

The exhibition took shape in 2000 with the show “Cave, cavatori e scalpellini, lavorare la pietra in Provincia di Belluno” (Quarries, Quarrymen and Stonecutters: Working Stone in the Province of Belluno), produced with the Museo Etnografico della Provincia di Belluno. Opened in 2006 as a permanent exhibition, the museum was reorganised and expanded, and in 2017 it moved into the building that housed Castellavazzo's former town hall.

The permanent exhibition is divided into thematic sections: the geological history of the area, the techniques of extracting, working and processing stone, everyday life connected with stone, and the history of the village and its stonecutters, who were also known abroad. Castellavazzo's link with stone working goes back to Roman times, as shown by the Neronian stele and the Aesculapius tablet (lapide di Esculapio).

Outside, the Bottega dello Scalpellino operates as the association's workshop, where stone is worked by hand using traditional techniques.

Highlights

Geological section with stone finds and fossils from the area
Room on extraction and stone-working techniques, with a reconstruction of a quarry
Section on the history of Castellavazzo and its stonecutters
Bottega dello Scalpellino, with hand stone working
Video room