Museum Gröden
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 Location within Italy
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| Established | 1960 |
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| Location | Urtijëi |
| Coordinates | 46°34′26″N 11°40′28″E / 46.573861°N 11.674556°ECoordinates: 46°34′26″N 11°40′28″E / 46.573861°N 11.674556°E |
| Type | Archeology, geology, history, toys |
| Director | Dr. Paulina Moroder |
| Website | Museum Gherdëina |
The Gherdëina Local Heritage Museum was opened in the Cësa di Ladins in Urtijëi, in northernmost Italy, in 1960. The building is the seat of the Union di Ladins de Gherdëina a cultural organisation for the keeping of the Ladin language and heritage in Val Gherdëina. In addition to the museum the building hosts a library specialized in Ladin language and culture.
The collections of the Gherdëina Museum enable the visitor to gain an informative insight into the cultural and natural world of Val Gherdëina. The collections are distributed over two floors and cover the following themes: wood carving art of the last three centuries, old locally produced wooden toys, a collection of paintings by local artists, the local archeology, the region's fossils, minerals and the local flora and fauna.
At the entrance the exhibition starts with several art objects like the Crucifix of Sëurasass (1932) by Baptist Walpoth and Vinzenz Peristi, as well as the oil painting by Josef Moroder-Lusenberg depicting Urtijëi in the year 1860 and three modern canvasses by Franz Noflaner.
The first exhibition room is dedicated to the original sculptures from St.James church in Urtijëi ascribed to Melchior (1622–1689) and Kassian (1710–1789) Vinazer. The local woodcarving Vinazer dynasty has had a lasting influence on the artistic production of Gherdëina. Also from St.James church is the original altarpiece (1751) by Franz Sebald Unterberger. The painting shows the Virgin Mary with child and the saints James and Henry.
The second exhibition room is dedicated to plastic art and offers a historic overview of the wood carving tradition of Gherdëina. To this collection belong works which range from those of the first famous woodcarving families Trebinger (1580–1689) and Vinazer (1622–1817) to a Saint Philomena of Rome by Dominik Mahlknecht (1796–1876), the sculptors of the 20th century Albin Pitscheider, Luis Insam-Tavella, Vinzenz Peristi and others. In addition, this room offers a wide variety of small sculptures ranging from the 18th to the mid-20th century, e.g. clock stands, caricatures, allegorical figures, cribs and crib figures and animal figurines. Of particular artistic interest as woodcarvings are the 120 figures by Albin Pitscheider (1877–1962), donated by his daughters. There is also a display of paintings by Josef Moroder-Lusenberg (1846–1939) and other local artists (e.g. Sontheimer, Demetz, Piazza).
The third exhibition room is dedicated to natural history. The visitor is introduced to the evolution of the geological structure of the western Dolomites by way of didactic charts and illustrations arranged in cooperation with Prof. Broglio and Prof. Posenato of the University of Ferrara with collection of local fossils, rocks and minerals. Among the fossils on show, special mention should be made of carbonized remainders of plants (Ortiseia), various gastropod imprints, a fossilized fish (Archaeolepidotus leonardii Accordi) and the reconstructed skeleton of an Ichthyosaurus, as well as coral colonies and ammonites. In addition to a cross-section of local minerals, including those typical of Mont Sëuc, this room also contains a collection of minerals from other alpine deposits (e.g. Teis, Ahrntal, Pfitsch) and from abroad, such as rock crystal, garnet, beryl, apophyllite, aragonite, sulphur, celestine and amethyst. In the same room another section offers an insight into the many-sided alpine flora and fauna by way of an herbarium and a collection of stuffed animals, e.g. an albino roe deer and local birds, and a butterfly collection.
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Wikipedia