The Museum of Tree Cults is an ethno-anthropological museum located in the municipality of Accettura.
Few traces remain of the tree cults that developed in antiquity, mostly matrimonial rites linked to a rural and predominantly animistic world. The Museum of Tree Cults in Accettura attempts to reconstruct the history and typology of the tree cults of the Lucanian territory. Among ethno-anthropological museums, the Accettura museum is perhaps unique in its kind in Europe, and what makes the work of this museum even more valuable is the fact that tree cults are “typical of very few other locations in the Mediterranean.” Among the places that celebrate the Maggi and tree cults in Basilicata are Accettura, Oliveto Lucano, Pietrapertosa, and Castelmezzano; furthermore, in the area of the Pollino massif straddling Basilicata and Calabria there are Rotonda, Viggianello, Terranova di Pollino, Alessandria del Carretto, and Castelsaraceno; and finally, elsewhere in Italy, there are other examples in Ponte Nossa, Fontanella Grazioli, Pastena, Vetralla, Baiardo, Baiano, Terrasini.
The Museum is located within the Gallipoli Cognato Natural Park – Little Lucanian Dolomites and also functions as a visitor center.
Established several years earlier, the facility was inaugurated in 2005 and carries on the legacy of Professor and researcher Giovanni Battista Bronzini and anthropologist Ferdinando Mirizzi.
The Museum also has a library stocked with texts on tree cults in Italy and Europe and a video library with films of Maggi festivals.
Information about the Museum of Tree Cults
Via Del Maggio, SNC
75011 Accettura (Matera)
0835675299
Source: MIBACT
