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All Italy Gaiano Ettore Guatelli Museum

Ettore Guatelli Museum

A rambling museum which honors the beauty in everyday objects.

Gaiano, Italy

Added By
Eric Grundhauser
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Ettore Guatelli Museum   Ettore Guatelli Museum
Ettore Guatelli Museum   Ettore Guatelli Museum
A selection of shoes leaving from the wall of suitcases.   Museo Ettore Guatelli on Flickr
The stacks of tins.   Museo Ettore Guatelli on Flickr
  jcaulkins 0745ba23 / Atlas Obscura User
  jcaulkins 0745ba23 / Atlas Obscura User
  jcaulkins 0745ba23 / Atlas Obscura User
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About

There is no tool too simple nor artifact too mundane that the Ettore Guatelli Museum could not find it a place among its dizzying collections.

Established by the titular elementary school teacher, Ettore Guatelli, the museum collects and artfully displays the seemingly mundane items from everyday Italian life. As Italian professions and culture progressed towards automation in the 20th century, junk stores began filling with discarded artisan's tools and obsolete household items. Guatelli, seeing relics of his culture and recent past slipping away or heading towards a landfill, began collecting everything from scissors and cobbler's hammers, to coffee cans and old suitcases. Believing that he would create a material chronicle of Italian life that he could use to teach later generations of children, Guatelli filled his house and surrounding farm complex with accumulated relics.

The rusty and dusty artifacts are displayed for maximum visual impact. The walls and ceilings are covered in fans and geometric groupings of knives, shoe forms, and spades. One room is covered, floor to ceiling in colorful tins, while another has a perfectly faced pile of suitcases lashed into a pendulous wall. Every inch and surface in the museum is home to some new and simple wonder.  

Guatelli would live his entire life at the farm before passing away at the age of 79, adding to his collections right to the end. Now the Ettore Guatelli Museum continues on, attracting visitors from around the world and even offering a special experience for children where they are given the opportunity to fashion a toy from some of the materials on the farm. The everyman's trash is often this museum's treasure.  

 

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Know Before You Go

The museum is open seasonally. From Monday to Saturday, you'll need to make a reservation. The museum is open for a few hours on Sundays with no reservations required (check the website, as these vary). It's about 30 minutes from Parma, the nearest large town, so you'll want access to a car. 

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Added By

EricGrundhauser

Edited By

Rachel, jcaulkins 0745ba23

  • Rachel
  • jcaulkins 0745ba23

Published

November 5, 2013

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Sources
  • http://www.wanderingitaly.com/video/ettoree-guatelli-museum.html
  • http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/10/18/the-museum-of-the-every-object-you-can-probably-think-of/
  • http://inspirationlab.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/jasper-white-vs-ettore-guatelli/
  • http://www.italianways.com/the-guatelli-museum/
Ettore Guatelli Museum
Via Nazionale
12
Gaiano, 43044
Italy
44.724528, 10.174832
Visit Website
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Nearby Places

Tomb of Niccolò Paganini

Parma, Italy

miles away

Museum of Prosciutto di Parma

Langhirano, Italy

miles away

The Labirinto della Masone

Fontanellato, Italy

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Italy

Italy

Europe

Places 1,064
Stories 111

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Tomb of Niccolò Paganini

Parma, Italy

miles away

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Langhirano, Italy

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The Labirinto della Masone

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miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Italy

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