The Ethnographic Museum ‘L Civel”

The ’L Civel museum of farm implements occupies a large courtyard and a harmonious group of rustic buildings. This idyllic rural location, in the village of Casalbeltrame, helps remind visitors of a time gone by when men and women, farmers and farmhands, animals and machines, were all dedicated to working the land.

The museum forms its own microcosm of memory and culture. The ample museum space is surrounded by a total of 5 churches, varying from large to small in size and forming a unique architectural context. (One quick wit described them as matroska doll churches!)

The traditional explanation is that the village was once a centre of Templar worship. The museum visit begins under a large arched portico. The large passage forms a sort of time machine, and houses an extensive series of farming implements. These include ploughs, from the oldest and most rudimentary up to perfectly functional 20th century models, as well as carts and carriages including one referred to in local dialect as ’l çivel – from which the museum derives its name.

As you leave the passage you will hear the song of an old caminant, one of the vagabonds who used to roam from village to village in the Novara area, telling stories, as late as the 1950s.