Museo delle Arti e delle Tradizioni Popolari

Ethnographic museum in Palazzo Montanari, on the hill of Sassoferrato, with about 1,500 objects in fifteen rooms covering farm work, domestic life and workshops.

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About the museum

The museum is housed in Palazzo Montanari, an ancient building on a rocky spur that divides the centre of Sassoferrato in two. According to the few surviving records, its core dates back to the year 1000 as a small fortress; in the 13th century it was enlarged and turned into a Benedictine convent named Santa Margherita in Paravento. In 1838 Father Angelo Montanari founded a girls’ orphanage there. The building has three levels around an internal arcaded courtyard, restored in 1980.

The idea for the museum, and the beginning of the collection of objects, work tools and furnishings, go back to 1954, thanks to Father Stefano Troiani and the founding of the Istituto Internazionale di Studi Piceni, to which almost the whole collection is owed. The museum was established in 1979 as a project to survey, conserve and promote the testimonies of the arts and traditions of the area. After closing because of the 1997 earthquake, it reopened in May 2006 with a completely redesigned display.

The fifteen rooms hold about 1,500 pieces in six sections. On the ground floor: working the land, processing farm produce (reaping and threshing), domestic crafts (spinning and weaving) and means of transport (two-wheeled carts and wagons). On the semi-basement floor: reconstructed domestic spaces (oven, cellar, pantry, bedroom, kitchen) and craft workshops (turner, carpenter, knife-grinder, woodcutter, shoemaker, cooper, blacksmith, farrier, mason, potter, rope-maker, beekeeper).

Highlights

Fifteen rooms with about 1,500 ethnographic objects
Six sections covering farm work, domestic life and means of transport
Reconstructed domestic spaces: oven, cellar, pantry, bedroom and kitchen
Reconstructed craft workshops
Housed in Palazzo Montanari, a former Benedictine convent