Torgiano

 

Torgiano is an Italian town of 6 562 inhabitants in the province of Perugia in Umbria. It is listed as one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.

It originates from a medieval castle. Of the latter, only a few ruined walls and a tower remain. In the 17th century, the Baglioni family erected a palace there, which Lungarotti used as a wine museum. Torgiano is in fact renowned, in Italy and in the world, for its DOC and DOCG wines.

 

Destinations

Wine Museum
The Torgiano Wine Museum (MUVIT) is a specialized private museum. It is based in Torgiano, in the center of an established wine-growing area located between Perugia and Assisi and known for its Rosso DOC and Torgiano Rosso Riserva DOCG.

 

History

Founded in 1974 and housed in the seventeenth-century Palazzo Graziani-Baglioni, in the rooms once used for the storage of agricultural products, it is considered one of the most important museums in the sector in Italy.

The conception and construction of the Wine Museum were by Maria Grazia Marchetti, art historian, wife of Giorgio Lungarotti, one of the patriarchs of Italian enology. It is managed, with the Olive and Oil Museum, by the Lungarotti Foundation, an institute that deals with the enhancement of Italian agricultural culture through research activities, exhibitions, conferences, publishing initiatives.

 

Accommodation

In 20 rooms over 2,800 artifacts of archeology, ceramics, graphics, antiquarian publishing and other evidence of minor arts are exhibited that document the centrality of wine in Mediterranean culture, its culture, its history, its relationship with food, pharmacy, the myth, starting from the third millennium BC up to our days.

The material is exhibited by thematic areas. The visit begins with an overview of the Middle Eastern origins of viticulture, and its expansion in the Mediterranean basin (first room). There are therefore various archaeological finds, ranging from the Bronze Age to the Late Ancient Age, including a kylix attributed to the Painter of Phrynos, from the group of Little Masters.

In the following rooms (from II to VIII) the winemaking techniques in vogue in Umbria are illustrated. The annual viticultural cycle and the traditional techniques of execution are documented by a remarkable series of tools and work tools. The part that illustrates the occasions and places of drinking is also very rich. In the basement of the building there is a large room dedicated to winemaking, which houses large presses, stills, a cauldron, a bottling machine, terracotta jars. A small room (VI) illustrates the various stages of processing of the “Vino Santo”, a passito wine which in Umbria by ancient tradition accompanies the festive occasions of the family calendar. A room (VII) follows in which the various trades connected to viticulture are remembered (coopers, tubs, blacksmiths, funers, basket-makers, etc.), with a large collection of tools. After a room dedicated to the regulation of the harvest time, the use and trade of wine (VIII), we move on to two rooms dedicated specifically to crafts and viticulture in Torgiano (IX-X).

In the following rooms (XI-XV) the attention is focused on a vast collection of ancient ceramic wine containers, originating from the most famous Italian production areas. The thematic classification divides the ceramics on display into the three sectors of "wine as food" (measures, bottles, etc.), "wine as medicine" (pourers, albarelli, pharmacy ointments, mortars, pharmaceutical jars), "wine and the myth ”(historians, including works by Mastro Giorgio Andreoli, models, including a notable bust of Bacchus attributed to Girolamo Della Robbia, symbolic decorations, largely linked to the enigmatic personality of Dionysos / Bacchus).
In a subsequent room (XVI) it is then possible to admire an important collection of waffle irons, useful for the preparation of thin biscuits that usually accompanied the offer of Vin Santo.

A rich collection of Dionysian-themed engravings and drawings (XVII) follows, consisting of about 600 works including engravings by Mantegna, Carracci, Guttuso and Picasso. After a room dedicated to the ex libris in question (XVIII), the visit ends with the exhibition of valuable editions of fiction and treatises on wine and almanacs (XIX).

Acknowledgments
In 1992 the Museum was awarded the “Prix de l'Excellence Regionale” in Paris, as part of the III Salon International des Musées.