Museo di storia dell’agricoltura e artigianato

Address: Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 23, (PU) URBANIA

Tel.: 0722/313151, Fax: 0722/317175

Email: info@museipartecipati.it

Hours: Tuesday to Sunday: 10:00-12:30, 15:00-18:00, and by request to the

‘Biblioteca Comunale’ (Municipal Library).

Closed Mondays.

Admission: Adult: 4€; Concession: 2€ (also includes a visit to the Civic Museum)

The Civic Museum is a member of ‘Carta Musei Marche’.

Typology : Ethnography and Anthropology

Facilities : Archives, Library, Ticket Office, Bookshop, Photo Library, Conference Room,

Teaching Room/Laboratory, Audio/Visual Room, Study/Research Rooms

How to Get There: By Train: Pesaro Station, and then by bus to Urbania

By Car: Autostrada: A14. Take exit for Fano. Then, SGC Grosseto-Fano (E78) from Fano to Urbania.

In the early 1970s, a Research Group in Urbania began a study of the History of Agriculture in the ‘Alto Metauro’ Region. With this study there also began a collection of agricultural tools and accounts of rural life and local artisans. Considerable documentation was produced from these eye-witness accounts.

The task of protecting and preserving these agricultural artefacts was subsequently continued and supported during the 1980s and 1990s by the Municipality of Urbania (Comune di Urbania).

The Comune enlisted the assistance of the local High School (Media N. Pellipario) and Technical Institute (Istituto Tecnico Professionale), and together they laid the foundations for the Museum of the History of Agriculture and Artisanry (MUSAA).

In 1999-2000, the Participating Museums (Musei Partecipati) project made it possible to create a new exhibition for the MUSAA, with the aim of giving far-reaching exposure to this collection of historical artifacts and documentation. The organisation of the exhibition was based on the cultivation of wheat, grape vines and the production of wine.

The ‘Musei Partecipati’ project is run by the Comunità Montana (Community of Mountain Regions) of Alto and Medio Metauro and by the municipalities of Borgo Pace, Sant’Angelo in Vado and Urbania.

The study carried out by the Museum has created synergies between artisans and ‘agriturismo’ (farm holiday) businesses. These collaborations have allowed agriturismo customers and Museum visitors alike to get to know and enjoy the range of activities offered by both the Museum and private enterprise. They provide new, interactive experiences that go beyond mere observance, to movement and hands-on activities.

The MUSAA has been set up in the cellars of the historic Palazzo Ducale (Ducal Palace) where the display has been divided into two distinct sections. On one side, there is a display of the most significant tools that were used for the cultivation of wheat and grape vines and in the production of wine. The display on the other side has examples of objects from day to day rural life: from the spring to the kitchen and the barn, and includes terracotta articles, most of which have come from the Maurri Poggi collection from Urbania’s Civic Museum. These objects are accompanied by interesting photographic images taken during the 20th century in the countryside of the province of Pesaro and Urbino.

A tour of the Museum ends on the spiral ramp of Francesco di Giorgio Martini, where visitors can find brief documentation of Urbania’s first factory – Manifattura Albani. This factory specialised in the production of Terraglie-style pottery. The factory’s workshops had been established inside the Ducal Palace in 1820 by Cardinal Giuseppe Albani, and by the end of the 19th Century, the Castelbarco family, heirs to Albani’ estate, had lifted their pottery production to the national level.