Museo delle Genti d'Abruzzo

About

Museo delle genti d'Abruzzo (Italian for Museum of the people of Abruzzo) is an ethnographic Museum in Pescara, Abruzzo.

The museum is housed in the remaining sections of the fortress of Pescara, constructed starting in the 16th century. The visible part of this section is the Bourbon penal bath on Via delle Caserme. The museum officially opened in 1973 with exhibitions on the lower floor of the Birthplace of Gabriele D'Annunzio Museum. In 1982, most of the collection was donated to the municipality of Pescara, which inaugurated the museum at its current location on March 13, 1998. In the early 2000s, the monumental arch on Via delle Caserme was reconstructed in a modern style, including the Literary Café. Before the 1943 bombing, a large access arch from the river, the only remaining element of the ancient entrance gates to Pescara from the fortress, stood near the barracks.

Inside, the museum contains artifacts and testimonies of life in Abruzzo, from Prehistory to the Industrial Revolution.

Of interest, located next to the atrium with the ticket office, is a small museum of the ancient Spanish fortress or "Real Piazza di Pescara", which later (the Via delle Caserme section) became a penal bath during the Bourbon era. The visible rooms show ancient prisons used for political prisoners opposing the Bourbons, including Clemente de Caesaris, a liberal and patriot from Abruzzo. The rooms are very simple, with barrel vaults, some preserved period cannons, and reproductions of the plans of the ancient fortress of Pescara, whose bastions were demolished or buried to allow the city to develop.

Part of the floor has been excavated to show how the ancient settlements of Aterno or Portanuova were constantly refortified over the centuries, from the Byzantines to the Normans to the Caldora family, leaving traces of the ancient Roman settlement, with remnants of underground mosaics.

Room I “Antonio Mario Radmilli” - Archaeology from Prehistory to the Middle Ages

Contains traces of prehistoric humans in Abruzzo (tools, pottery, tombs,...) and from ancient times (armor, weapons, iron,...).

The oldest artifacts date back 100,000 years, found in various archaeological areas of Abruzzo, mainly in caves at the foot of the Maiella and Gran Sasso, such as the Piccioni cave in Bolognano, the cave of Montebello di Bertona, or the archaeological area of Contrada Svolte di Popoli. The room reconstructs the Neolithic period in Abruzzo, when humans began to stop living in caves, which were instead used as crypts and tombs, and started practicing agriculture and animal husbandry; many tools for work in the countryside from this period are preserved. Moving to the Metal Age and then to the Italic peoples, funerary items, tombs, and skeletons found around Penne (PE) are preserved, including domestic objects, weapons, and armor for men, showing the evolution of this art, influenced by the Romans and Greeks.

Room II - Sacredness of caves and continuity of places of worship

Contains the reproduction of a cave, with artifacts from prehistoric, barbaric, and Christian beliefs.

The room reconstructs the history of Christian worship that supplanted the Italic-Roman one in the Piccioni cave in Bolognano, with objects from the 8th century found, such as vases; the highlight of the collection is the medieval statue of Saint Michael the Archangel, from the hermitage of Sant'Angelo in Lettomanoppello. Saint Angelo became the quintessential saint in Abruzzo during the Lombard era, with churches, statues, and caves dedicated to him. The room uses exhibition panels to illustrate the most ancestral votive cults dedicated to the saint in Abruzzo, such as the ritual of rubbing oneself on the water-bearing rock of the hermitage of San Michele in Liscia (CH) or the hermitage of Sant'Onofrio in Serramonacesca (PE).

Room III - Continuity of sacred rites and material culture

Focuses on the theme of continuity (of everyday objects, magic and rituals, shapes and decorations, cults, and traditional festivals) over the centuries in Abruzzo.

The material found in various late Lombard churches in the Val Pescara dates back to the 8th-9th centuries. The highlight is a votive wooden box with various stylized friezes of geometric and plant elements, including a kind of heart, used as the logo of the Museum of the People of Abruzzo. Among these motifs also appears the prototype of the Abruzzese jewel called the Presentosa. Other exhibition panels show other festivals dedicated to the cult of "regeneration" in Abruzzo, always dedicated to Saint Michael, such as the end of September fires, bonfires, but also sacred fire rituals that somehow connect to ancient pagan purification rites, such as the Farchie of Fara Filiorum Petri. For the Lent period, the room displays typical Abruzzese sweets prepared for Easter, such as dolls, horses, and other anthropomorphic or animal figures, depending on the province.

Contains a stylized reproduction of a flock of sheep and some objects that the shepherd created during his workdays.

Interesting reconstructions of the typical pastoral environment on a mountain plateau like Campo Imperatore, with mannequins depicting shepherds in their costumes, sheep, stazzi, and stone tholos huts. Fascinating are wooden instruments made by the shepherds, showcasing their craftsmanship. These objects include milking stools, razor boxes, grooming tools, bagpipes, and ciaramellas. These items, along with writings on notebooks, belong to the Abruzzese shepherd poet Francesco Giuliani, known as "Cicche ru Cuaprare", and demonstrate that shepherds were not just simple traveling farmers but artisans who expressed a certain originality in their art.

Further confirmation of this craft, as testified by historians and folklorists such as De Nino, Finamore, and Pansa, lies in the fact that shepherds from the 16th-17th centuries entertained themselves during their gatherings on the tratturi by telling or composing chivalric poems about the exploits of Charlemagne and the Paladins or Roland from Ariosto's poem, or recounting the exploits of Goffredo d'Altavilla and Tancredi in Torquato Tasso 's poem. The museum room preserves personal diaries of shepherds containing poems and original poetry in dialect and language. The pastoral poetry activity is well documented in the Sagittario Valley, where an unpublished chivalric poem about the exploits of Charlemagne, the wizard Pietro Bailardo, and the witch Angelica was also found.

Through some panels and objects, it narrates the history of shepherding and transhumance over the centuries.

Reconstructions of tholos stone huts, with stones interlocked to form a rough night shelter, are shown. Many of these huts are found near Abbateggio and Bolognano in the Val Pescara. Of interest are also land concession diplomas signed by King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, indicating that Abruzzese shepherds, during their journey from L'Aquila to Foggia, often had to stop in non-owned lands.

This room contains a reproduction of a typical Abruzzo dry-stone hut, known as a “tholos”, along with its typical furnishings.