Museo di Leventina

Does an identity exist?
How can man tell about a culture, define a population, decide who is part of a specific ethnicity? Who decides? Which are the criteria that determine the belonging or exclusion of a person in a certain group

These questions, already asked by the first anthropologists, represented the starting point of the consideration that lead to a re-thinking of the staging of the permanent exhibition at the Museo of Leventina.

The exhibition questions the possibility that an "identity" may or may not exhists and if it does, which form or content could have. The visitor is guided through the exhibition in a discovery of people, symbols and lifestyles that defined the Valley on a path that crosses several eras until today. Watch out ...not everything is like you see it: lots of stereotypes could be destroyed and many ideas could reval themselves as creations of your mind ...

Rituals today 
From a holy procession to the traditional "Party of the twenty years old" in high Leventina, passing through a beauty pageant for cows: what joins these events ? The exhibition, dedicated to "rituals", gives the viewer a look on the topic from a apparent provocatory point of view. The ritual is a human event, recognizable in every culture. Generally speaking, it is associated to the religious world and in the holy ambit and today, one can also find it in profane scopes.
In the public life, in the private one, in the past as today, a lot of rituals provoke an amotional reaction, use a symbolic language and can strenghten social interactions by creating a sense of community.
Through the look proposed by the exhibition, one will discover several usage of rituals and their changes across time.

CASA STANGA: Old pub, today home of the Leventina Museum
Located on the old way "Via Francigena", just south of the two bridges that cross the Ticino River, the "Museo di Leventina" . The architectural complex of "Casa" is of big historic-artistic interest and is registered in the inventory of cultural heritage of national and cantonal importance. Casa Stanga used to be, for centuries, a home and a pub. The facades have been painted originally in 1588-89 by Giovanni Battista Tarilli and Domenico Caresana with all the family coat-of.arms of famous travellers that came from all over Europe and that lodged there. In the year 2014, the venue of the "Museo di Leventina" has been re-opened to the public after some years due to renovations and restoration of some of the paintings.


Special openings and guided tours are available on request throughout the year.

Discover all the guided tours organised by the museum! LINK