E’ among the oldest Italian museums in the field of material culture. Its origins date back to the Esposizioni Romagnole Riunite held in Forlì in 1921. On that occasion Aldo Spallicci, Emilio Rosetti and Benedetto Pergoli created the Romagna Ethnographic Exhibition, which effectively constituted the first core of the museum, officially inaugurated in April 1922 inside Palazzo Merenda. Initially focused on traditional artisanal sectors (from cabinetry, to ceramics, to printed fabrics) and old crafts, after the war the museum developed significantly with an increasing presence of tools and objects related to peasant customs and work. In 1964, a new museum section was opened inside Palazzo Gaddi with large agricultural machines and tools. Following the start of restoration work in the Palace, since 2004 the materials related to peasant work have been stored in a museum depot. The museum is divided into two large exhibition sections. The first develops inside Palazzo Merenda and includes substantial collections of furniture, ceramics and various utensils with reconstructions of the domestic environments of the typical farmhouse and the city house. Then follow the traditional workshops, those of the rust fabric printer, the potter, the blacksmith, the luthier, the cobbler, the hatter, and, finally, the characteristic Romagna tavern. Among the furnishings is the interesting pictorial series by the artist from Cesena, Giordano Severi, dedicated to the fortresses and castles of Romagna (1928-30). In Palazzo Gaddi, in addition to machines and tools connected to the various working cycles in the Romagna countryside, reconstructions of other artisan workshops are offered: those of the barber, the grocer, the candy maker, the tobacconist, the ropemaker, the saddler, the farrier, the framer, the carpenter. One section is dedicated to maritime activities in Romagna, with models of boats and reproductions of the sails of the fishing fleet, and to the salt pans of Cervia.
Information about Romagna Ethnographic Museum “Benedetto Pergoli”
Corso della Repubblica, 72,
47121 Forlì (Forlì-Cesena)
0543712606
servizio.pinacoteca.musei@comune.forli.fo.it
https://www.comune.forli.fo.it/cultura
Source: MIBACT
