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enter the museum
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It contains work instruments and a lot of objects of daily use which give us a glimpse of what life was in the past in Bisacquino. This ethnologic museum is one of the best in Western Sicily especially for the accurate reconstruction of settings ( the farmer's living room and bedroom, the shepherd's or shoemaker's corner, the animal's stable etc..), plenty of original objects, of tools and pieces of furniture. Visiting the museum is an unforgettable experience: you feel immersed in a disappeared world which tells us about the history and culture of Bisacquino people, as in a film sequence. The various objects and reconstructions evoke memories of the past and the everyday life of farmers and shepherds, knife makers and tinkers, weavers and blacksmiths or coppersmiths. Outside the museum, stone rings on the house walls - where farmers used to tie their animals - watering troughs scattered throughout the town bear witness to the rural civilization of the past. Moreover, a glance at the town balcony rails recalls the blacksmiths' cleverness, the ruins of some watermills remind us of the millers' laboriousness; finally two gentlemen Mr.Govanni Bacile and Mr. Paolo Scibetta, aged 85, are the alive evidence of the past handicraft in Bisacquino. At Bacile's shop you can still buy hand-made knives with finely decorated goat horn handles. Paolo Scibetta's tower clocks can be seen still well working not only in Bisacquino but also in other Italian towns. Even the famous film director Luchino Visconti ordered him a clock for a scene of his film "Il Gattopardo". In the Clock Museum old clock engines, made by his own hands, and various tools are collected and preserved for the future generations. In the ethnological museum of Bisacquino there is also a section where you can see Greek and Carthaginian finds discovered on Mount Triona overhanging Bisacquino.
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A clock engine in the Clock Museum |
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