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Painting school in Santa Maria Maggiore founded in the 19th century, with a gallery of painters from Valle Vigezzo from the mid-18th to the 20th century.
July 5, 2026 – November 15, 2026
Exhibition devoted to the painter Camillo Besana, born in Malesco in 1887, a pupil and later a teacher at the school. Landscapes, scenes of everyday life and people of the Vigezzo Valley, with snow at the centre.
The Scuola di Belle Arti “Rossetti Valentini” was founded in 1878 by the painter Giovanni Maria Rossetti Valentini from Valle Vigezzo, who had been successful in France as an artist and as a secondary-school (liceo) teacher. Returning to the valley, he opened a free school of drawing and ornamentation for the young people of the valley. Together with the maestro Enrico Cavalli, he became the centre of local artistic and intellectual life: a school unique in the Alpine arc and still active today.
The valley is known as the Valle dei Pittori (Valley of Painters): from the mid-17th century young people learned the trade in workshops, and many emigrated, mainly to France, to paint portraits to commission. In the 19th century the Vigezzo painters turned to landscape and to the rendering of light.
The school is in the historic centre of Santa Maria Maggiore, in a 19th-century building extended with modernisation works completed in 2023. The rooms house the permanent collection of Vigezzo painting from the mid-18th century to the 20th century, with works by Carlo Giuseppe Borgnis, known as Sparsicin, Giacomo Rossetti, Enrico Cavalli and Carlo Fornara, alternating with temporary exhibitions. On the ground floor are the bookshop, an exhibition hall and the art library with the gipsoteca (collection of plaster casts) of 18th-century casts once used by the students.
| Adults | €4 |
|---|---|
| Groups (5+ people) | €5 per personGuided tours by reservation for groups of 5 to 20 people: €5 per person; for fewer than 5 people, a fixed fee of €25. |
Admission on a responsible-contribution basis, with a minimum contribution of €4 per person. Reservation required for guided tours, by writing to the foundation’s secretariat.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this.
The foundation runs drawing courses for children and adults and creative workshops.
Santa Maria Maggiore (Ferrovia Vigezzina-Centovalli) · 5-min walk · 300 m
The Santa Maria Maggiore station of the Ferrovia Vigezzina-Centovalli is about 300 m away, a five-minute walk.
Parking available · 200 m to the entrance
Small car park 50 m away; larger car park in Piazza Mercato, about 200 m away.
By car, the school can only be reached when the historic centre is not closed to traffic as a pedestrian area.
Get directionsBookshop on the ground floor.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this.
| Guided tours | yes |
|---|---|
| School programs | yes |
| Good to know | Guided tours by reservation for groups of 5 to 20 people, to be requested by e-mail from the foundation’s secretariat. For schools an educational programme is available, also combined with a trip on the Ferrovia Vigezzina-Centovalli (Binari didattici offer). |
