The Bardolino museums reflect its traditional activities.
The Museo dell’olio and Museo del vino tell about the historic origins of these products of excellence through the ancient instruments they hold.
The Museo Sisan, on the other hand, shows an ornithological exhibition together with exhibits of other traditional activities of the region such as fishing.
This museum too holds old instruments dating back to ancient times.
Museo dell'Olio
The Museo dell’Olio is a corporate museum founded by Umberto Turri in the 1988 summer.
This exposition is the only one of its kind and it aims to testify to a productive system interesting the rural population during more than a thousand years.
It also reflects the history of a poor background with no means nor scientific knowledge, needing to get a food of primary importance from such a precious fruit.
The itinerary goes through a static and unchanging technological context to reach the new opportunities of the mechanical industry at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The museum also holds old original instruments used in the olive oil mills during the eighteenth century together with other tools and furnishings dating back to different ages.
Eighteenth century press
A majestic oak wood manual press machine leaps out together with an olive oil mill activated through a water driven wheel mill (perfectly functioning) and other original examples of wood and iron presses.
A special section is dedicated to olive oil plantation and production through educational panels and videos.
The Museo dell’olio d’oliva also aroused the interest of the mass media: numerous articles and television reports made it renowned also in Europe. Flavio Turri and his wife Liliana Martino directly cured the museum, inheriting this passion from Umberto and further widening the exhibition itinerary. Private and guided tours are offered with the aid of multimedia guides available in five different languages: Italian, German, English, French and Dutch.
The Museo dell’olio d’oliva also aroused the interest of the mass media: numerous articles and television reports made it renowned also in Europe. Flavio Turri and his wife Liliana Martino directly cured the museum, inheriting this passion from Umberto and further widening the exhibition itinerary. Private and guided tours are offered with the aid of multimedia guides available in five different languages: Italian, German, English, French and Dutch.
Historical reproduction of olive grinding with millstone
Museo del Vino
The Museo del Vino is located within Cantina Zeni in Costabella, along the wonderful scenic route of Bardolino.
The museum shows an interesting itinerary among rudimentary instruments and machineries used in ancient times during the different phases of the production chain, from the harvest to wine-making and bottling.
The exhibition includes several examples of animal-drawn plough, that is the most important instrument of the history of civilization: it allowed to plough deep thus obtaining richer and surer crops.
The museum also holds two beautiful carts from Verona used in the 50s to transport the grapes from the countryside to the wineries during the harvest season, together with a cart with barrels used to move wine from the Bardolino winery to merchants in Milano or Varese.
Museo del vino
The museum also holds the private collection of the Zeni family, including four precious presses dating back to different ages that were used for marc pressing from the fifteenth up to the nineteenth century.
Moreover, there are a rudimentary drying machinery and several tools such as wood funnels, buckets of different sizes and pack baskets used for must transportation.
The itinerary ends with the exhibition of wine pumps dating back to the twentieth century used for wine pouring and an old cooper table. The cooper was the artisan who produced wood containers of all sizes, including barrels.
Period carts
Museo Sisàn
A museum dedicated to the ornithological, fishing and hunting traditions of the Garda district.
This innovative museum holds eight rooms in which finds are described with the aid of multimedia devices available in three different languages: Italian, English and German.
The ornithological section exhibits numerous bird examples categorized on the basis of their nest-building areas; it has been recently restored in order to improve its educational and preparatory but also touristic and scientific value.
Each find is accompanied by complete descriptive captions and visitors can also listen to the birds singing.
The birth of this museum is related to a centuries-old ornithological festival Cisano holds till today on the 8th of September: the “Sagra dei Osei”.
A short re-enactment of the old festival highlights the historic and cultural aspects of this context while underlining the socio-economic reasons of its birth and development for all this time up to the present day.
On the other hand the fishing section is dedicated to the lake Garda professional fishing that has been an important means of subsistence for years, starting from the 70s.
The exhibition also shows the species living on the lake together with rare fishing tools such as fixed nets, harpoons, lures, lines and boats.
Ornithological exhibition