Ursaria Association Friends of the Museum, Orsara Bormida

The ethnographic museum of Orsara, hosted in the Municipal premises, was created in 1996 by a group of volunteers, following the first donation of ancient agricultural objects made by the ever-remembered Guido Farinetti.

In the following years it has been enriched thanks to the generosity of the people of Orsara and beyond: today the Museum has many pieces of ancient personal and household linen, female and male accessories, a very rich collection of agricultural tools linked to peasant civilization, household items related to the same archaic civilization, toys, old advertising signs, vintage photographs and newspapers, and some antique furniture.

The Museum is managed by the association “Ursaria Friends of the Museum” founded in 1998 and of which almost all the families of the village are members. The association has revived ancient traditions and plays a social role organizing exhibitions, concerts, local culture events. It publishes a local newsletter called l’Orso, which serves as a link between past and present, offering historical memories alongside current news from Orsara. The most precious paper document preserved in the museum is the war diary of Bernardo Zambado, a farmer from Rivalta, born in 1890, who left for war in June 1915, and fell in the San Martino Basin on October 21, at the age of 25.

The peasant ethnographic museum publishes a quarterly periodical, which is sent to all members of the Ursaria Friends of the Museum Association (141 members) and free of charge to all Orsara residents in Argentina. A large part of Orsara’s population emigrated to Argentina several years ago and still maintains contact with their hometown today.