scopri-il-museo - Museo storico del Parmigiano Reggiano e della civiltà contadina della val d'enza

In the context of an original farmhouse, where the testimonies of the life of a peasant patriarchal family of the time reconstruct the authentic rural environments from the kitchen to the bedroom, the stable, the barn, the cheese processing rooms and the cellars create an evocative outline of the ethnological museum that we wanted to set up to exhibit all those objects that are part of the peasant tradition of our lands: a tradition now almost lost but still visible in the ancient artifacts, in the agricultural tools used until the 1950s in the the Reggio countryside.

MUSEUM - FARMHOUSE Ground

floor: The

ground floor is made up of three sections.

In the first section or entrance, the carriages, that is the means of transport par excellence, are exhibited. The Reggio carriage consists of a structural part, the bed wagon, so called because it is long and rectangular, with a front often decorated with symbols, a sturdy supporting frame, two axles and wheels that had to be very massive with impact resistant spokes. Used for transport , The occasional chariot, for weddings there was the 'Bride's chariot ', characterized by decorations with the sun and flowers, referring to the fertility wished for the woman. The chariot was also essential for San Martino day dedicated to removals, at the time called 'San Martein '. The second section consists of a stable with two series of 'poste ': the right one shows the rooms of the house where the farmer's day took place, m while on the left are the tools of the activities that were practiced in the stable and beyond.

LIVING

AREA On

the right side of the stable some rooms of the house have been shown: the kitchen, the weaving room, the knitting corner and the pantry. You can admire a table set, a piece of furniture for flour and a walker, called 'scantador ', which children used to learn to walk. The center of the house and of family life was the fireplace (with the cavdoun that are paired in the hearth), symbol and sign of the home, a place where, all gathered, they listened to

the stories of their grandparents. This is followed by the reconstruction of the basement which contained furniture and containers for storing food. On the left side is the revival of the stable itself, characterized by 'the post ', a place reserved for the cow, spacious enough to accommodate a possible calf. Continuing on you will come across a sector dedicated to the farmyard, told

through

the relative tools, subsequently

the objects of the saddler and the farrier are on display. LA STANZA DEL LATT The third section of the ground floor is dedicated to tools for making cheese and for transporting milk. The milk was brought to the dairies in the plains by means of small carts and in the Apennine or mountain areas with a backpack container or a barbell. As for the cheese, utensils such as the double bottom to heat the milk,

the

churn, the balance to weigh

the wheels and different types of graters are exhibited. THE ARTISANS IN THE RURAL WORLD In this section, adjacent to the milk room, the working environments of the two artisans who collaborated most with the rural world are reorganized: the carpenter and the blacksmith. Both worked in the same workshop, because their collaboration was essential for the construction of tools such as the wagon and its main component: the wheel. In addition to them, the farmer turned to other specialized artisans: the saddler, the shoemaker, all these farrier characters, the grinder gravitated around the rural world and helped the farmer to build his tools and repair them.

They

were essential

skills for the proper functioning of a rural community and of an entire hamlet. FIRST FLOOR In the old barn, located above the stable, the tools for working the fields and some household tools are exhibited. The first part is occupied by plows of different types. The plow could be with or without a trolley. scissor if he created only a trace on the ground or revolver if he turned the ground. The plow was used to prepare the soil for sowing and was mainly pulled by oxen tied to the tool by means of yokes. These types of heavy work were typical of men while women took care of

household

chores, such

as spinning wool and hemp and hand-made laundry, activities that are recalled here through the ancient tools used. SLEEPING AREA Finally, still on the first floor but on the opposite side, there are furnished as they once were, the bedrooms of the farmer and landowner. The farmer's bed consisted of two trestles surmounted by wooden planks and a straw mattress or a sheep's wool mattress, made soft by handwork. Next to the double bed there are two shelf bedside tables, the cot for the smallest child, surrounded by the safety net. In the adjoining room there is a collection of games used by children of various ages: dolls, rocking horses and various types of carts built by older children. The games

had

to be

built and worked out for their good functioning. The last space that can be visited is that of the cellar, a place where all the tools for the production of wine are placed, such as the mostadora, or the foot crusher, the fermentation vat, the press to press the fermented must afterwards. having removed the wine, the filter for the finest wines, the barrels for the first aging, the demijohns for the final conservation and the bottles for consumption. The final product was Lambrusco, a typical wine of these areas, derived from ancient vines such as: Grasparossa, Montericco, Uva d'oro, Lancellotta, etc ...

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