 |
Home » Visiting the Park » Museums and Visitor Centers
The Soapstone Archaeological Museum
Malesco (Valle Vigezzo)
The territory of Parco Nazionale della Val Grande is not only important for
its wilderness or nature, but also for the aspect of human presence in the
territory. The Soapstone Archaeological Museum gives the opportunity to go
back in time and imagine the life of the local past populations.
The Museum, set in the palace of the ancient Praetorium, sketches the
most ancient history of the exploitation of this material in the territory
of the Soapstone and Stonecutters Ecomuseum promoted by the Municipality
of Malesco in collaboration with the Department for the Archaeological Heritage
of Piedmont.
The Museum route combines archaeology and ethnography thanks to a particular
interpretation of the archaeological finds focusing on the everyday working
tools and the products deriving from the skill of the ancient local stonecutters.
The halls present the issue illustrating, through cartography and finds,
the places and techniques of soapstone extraction, the working methods, and
the traditional handicrafts obtained from it.
The heart of the Museum consists of evidences dating back to prehistory
and becoming particularly rich in the Roman period. They give an idea of
the progressive control by man on nature and the resources of the valley:
the exploitation of soapstone deposits represents the essential element of
an economic richness that was maintained until the late Roman Age.
Between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, the outfits were not only characterized
by stone handicrafts, but also by a considerable number of precious and import
objects. Among the latter, the silver saucepans produced in Campania and
wonderful glasses stand out, a lively evidence of the role the Valley played
in the past in the trading circuits whose engine probably was the exploitation
of local resources.
The toughness and the processing ease of serpentinite favored its exploitation
from prehistory to the Middle Ages, also in the field of the sacred. It was
a support for rock engravings, it provided the raw material to carve an extraordinary
head of divinity in the late Iron Age, and continued to be used in the decorations
and furnishing of several churches and places of worship in more recent periods.
In the basement of the building, the structure of an ancient dairy
is preserved: here all the elements use refractory stone, from the
big fireplace, creating a trait-d'union between the issue of soapstone
in archaeology and in the local ethnographic and architectural tradition.
The Museum therefore
opens itself to the territory with a picture gallery providing ideas
for thematic visits, both in Malesco and in the Park area.
Opening Hours
From 27th June to 6th September every day 10.00 a.m./noon and 3.30 p.m./6.30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday also from 8.30 p.m. to 10.30 p.m.; special night opening during events.
 The Archaeological Museum for Schools (PDF, Italian text - 88Kb)
For the school year 2009/2010, the Soapstone Archaeological Museum suggests some thematic routes that can be also combined with a guided tour in the surroundings of Malesco.
THE SOAPSTONE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
of Val Grande National Park
Palazzo Pretorio - P.zza Ettore Romagnoli - Malesco (VB)
For information:
Ente Parco Nazionale Val Grande
Tel. 0324 87540, Fax 0323 556397
pvgrande@tin.it
Comune di Malesco
Tel. 0324 92261, Fax 0324 92645
www.malesco.net , malesco@malesco.net
|
|
