Description
Discovering secret places
The area between Lake Como and Lake Ceresio offers a wide range of museums; in particular, in the municipality of Grandola ed Uniti, the splendid Villa Camozzi, seat of the town hall, is home to the Ethnographic and Naturalistic Museum. Sanagra Valley The aim of this project is to create a "natural historical memory" of the past civilizations that populated the Val Sanagra area, preserving their real and documentary traces in order to pass them on to future generations.
A museum tracing the natural historical memory of past civilizations
The Val Sanagra Museum is unique, together with the Val Sanagra PLIS it represents a true educational center, able to guide visitors to discover this great cultural and natural heritage.
The Val Sanagra Museum, officially founded in 2001 thanks to the efforts of the mayor at the time and numerous fellow citizens, was recognized in 2007 by the Lombardy Region as a “Museum Collection” (dgr Aug. 2, 2007 No. 8/5251); completing the same was also the “History, Nature and Life” Voluntary Association, which was entrusted with the task of planning and implementing the museum but, above all, linking the Val Sanagra Park, through a real educational center so as to connect two realities in continuous and symbiotic dialogue:
“The museum guiding the visitor to the park and, conversely, the park directing the visitor to the museum.”.
The museum is housed in the beautiful Villa Camozzi, an 18th-century historic building with a panoramic garden overlooking the valley to Menaggio, with interiors embellished with frescoes, stucco work and original marble fireplaces.
The museum houses numerous thematic rooms dedicated to fossils, animals, dioramas, the former Menaggio Porlezza Railway, or freeze-dried mushrooms, showing the wide variety of natural and cultural offerings in the area.
From a naturalistic point of view, evidence of the fauna, flora, paleontology and ethnography of the Val Sanagra can be found collected; evidence of orography, hiking trails and ecology, as well as very ancient fossil and carboniferous finds are also present.
The museum also offers valuable evidence of the local past, displaying a rich collection of everyday tools and implements used by locals for jobs that have now disappeared; note the clock in the bell tower of Naggio, a hamlet of Grandola that works thanks to the force of gravity and the nice souvenir of the Grandola ed Uniti marching band.
The 7 exhibition halls
The museum exhibition includes 7 types of rooms, spread over two floors exploring different themes:
- Fossil Hall (Paleontological) - This is the most developed sector with the display of very ancient rocks, fossils from the Val Gariasca coal deposit, neighboring areas of the Lepontine Alps and Mount Pidaggia. There are plant remains over 310 million years old that represent unique finds in Lombardy, considered the oldest fossils in the entire province, rare even at the National level.
- Dioramas Room (Eco-fauna) - It displays three dioramas, verisimilar environmental reconstructions of wildlife habitats and various types of vegetation from oak forests to the mountain grasslands of the Val Sanagra.
- Fauna Hall (Stuffed Animals) - It displays a collection of animals that inhabit the Val Sanagra area, in particular a deceased griffon vulture specimen in the mountains of Upper Lario.
- Mushroom Room (Mycological) - It exhibits a collection of freeze-dried mushrooms and is among the few in Italy.
- Music Room (of the Band) - It is dedicated to the Grandola music corps. The musical instruments of the now permanently disbanded band have found their place in the museum, arranged to simulate a concert.
- Ethnographic Hall - It displays a large collection of antique objects, tools and implements used in the past for a variety of tasks and work activities that have now disappeared.
- Railway Hall - A documentary photo exhibition of the old Menaggio-Porlezza railway (1884-1939) that traces a very important history for this area that is experienced in a very nostalgic way.
Services
- PlayMuseum - Free interactive app for children and teens, available on tablets at the museum
- Proposals for schools and families - Dedicated educational paths
- Bookshop
- Online Virtual Tour - Available on the website with curator Attilio Selva
Practical information
Address: Piazza L. Camozzi, 2 - 22010 Grandola ed Uniti (CO)
Management: Volunteer Association “History, Nature and Life”
Nearby
- Val Sanagra Park - It covers the territory of Grandola ed Uniti and Menaggio
- Galli Furnace - It is the most outstanding and best-preserved example of pre-industrial archaeology in the Val Sanagra area. Open from April to September, 2nd and last Sunday of the month (10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; 2 p.m.-5:30 p.m.). Locality Mulino della Valle, Grandola ed Uniti (CO).
- Empire Forest - A nature trail in the municipality of Carlazzo, one of the many forests created in the 1930s that is home to many animal species.
Experiences
- Visit to the Galli Furnace - For info and reservations: phone +39 0344.32115 - e-mail: ecomuseo@valsanagra.it
- Combined Ticket Museum + Galli Furnace - Available at subsidized rates
Gallery
