Ethnographic Museum “The wine warehouse”

ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM ‘Su magasinu ‘e su binu’ The wine warehouse
The Ethnographic Museum Su magasinu ‘e su binu is housed in a typical warehouse complete with ‘lolla’ -courtyard with porch- of the eighteenth century. Displayed there are the necessary tools for different trades. Deeply interesting are the sections dedicated to viticulture and wine-making, to the processing of the dwarf palm, to the stages of bread baking, to the most typical crafts of the cooper, the carpenter and the smith. Big interest causes the exhibition of the “pinna nobilis”, the largest Mediterranean mollusk, from which in Sant’Antioco until the 30s of the twentieth century used to be extracted the filament that, skillfully worked, gave birth to the precious ‘bisso’, or silk sea.

ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM COLLECTION
The exhibition of the ETHNOGRAPHIC museum is divided into two rooms, an indoor part “su magasinu” –warehouse- and a large courtyard, typical of Sulcis.

The indoor exhibition the the classic “medau” of the Sulcis (aggregation of living cells which vary from 4 to 15 units): here there are the tools to carry out various works divided into sections.

Very interesting is the dairy section, with the necessary utensils for milk collection and its transformation into cheese; greatly appreciated the section reserved to bread bakery, presented in its various and complex phases, emphasizing the central role of women in the agro-pastoral society.

It follows the section of agricultural use tools that shows the cereal vocation of Sulcis; a special mention deserves the section dedicated to the work of the vine, with the necessary pruning tools, the anti-parasite treatment, the grape harvest, up to the different stages of winemaking.

Another important corner of the Ethnographic Museum is dedicated to the dwarf palm (Chamaerops humilis) and to the steps of its manufacture. There are in fact exposed brooms, ropes, bags, brushes, various types of weave. From the dried leaves of this plant people used to obtain all of these objects.

Of exceptional importance is the part reserved to the rare sea ‘bisso’, fine linen, also known as “sea silk”, and to the ‘Pinna NOBILIS’, the big bivalve from which it was obtained the ‘bisso’. By the news reported in the Bible until the weaving school of Italo Diana, that in the 30s of the twentieth century revitalized a craft in those times survived in Sant’Antioco’s families.

Outside in the garden, under the “lolla”, you’ll find tools related to collateral trades, such as the cooper (su buttaiu), the carpenter (maistu ‘e linna, master of wood), the blacksmith (ferreri).