It was established by the “E Scaion” Association (whose name comes from the clam fishing tool) in collaboration with the Province of Rimini, as a natural development of an extensive research and conservation project, lasting several years and still ongoing, focused on the recovery of traditional flat-bottomed Viserba boats used for coastal fishing (batane), once normally moored by the sea shore, and now inevitably destined for destruction, and the typical equipment of the sailors who worked with them. The museum displays fishing gear and work tools carefully restored: nets and oars, all original models used in Italian seas, shipwright tools, navigation instruments, and memorabilia. Added to these is the precious collection of Andrea Capici from Ancona, who over more than twenty years of research has assembled a collection of 8,000 shell specimens from the Mediterranean Sea.
Visitors have the opportunity to take a real journey into the world of ancient seafaring, getting acquainted, starting from the first room, with the typical objects used by sailors and craftsmen in their daily activities such as shipwright and caulker tools, the menacul, a hand clam fishing tool used near the shore, the marotta, a mock boat where eels were kept to fatten for sale during Christmas holidays, the rabbio screw tool for fishing sole and other bottom fish always from the shore. Currently, the Museum holds about six hundred and fifty vintage shore fishing gear and nets, including trawl nets and fixed nets (fish traps, cogolli). In the first and second rooms are preserved numerous scale models of typical boats (battanini, marotte, trabaccoli, blocks), about 400 photographs, and numerous videos from 1912 to the 1960s documenting moments of Rimini’s maritime life. In the outdoor section, some batane specimens recovered and restored by the Association can be admired, as well as various anchors, rudders, and two rowing workmosconi.
Information about the Museum of Small-Scale Fishing and Shells
Via Minguzzi, 7 – loc. Viserbella,
47921 Rimini (Rimini)
0541722185
turismo@provincia.rimini.it
Source: MIBACT
