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 Argenta and its Eco-museum
Argenta is situated
in Ferrara's province; it has about 22.000 inhabitants on 311
square meters divided in 13 hamlets. This city boasts of an
ancient town-center ed a complex system of museums, the
Eco-museum of Argenta, grown up around a beautiful oasis of marshland.
Argenta foundation goes back to
roman time or a little later. His name seems to derive from silver
reflections on humid ground and of waters that in the ancient times
surrounded it. Since origins Argenta depends on Ravenna's diocese
and, about X - XI century she known a period of great glory thanks
to its river port on Po of Primaro, now called Reno.
From XII century Estensi dukedome wanted the control on the city and
so Pope Clemente VI gave it in leasing during 1344 and Estensi kept
it till Alfonso II's death in 1597 when the whole Ferrara dukedome
was transferred to Pontifical State.
Inhabitants of Argenta fought during Independence Wars with hundreds
of volunteers: the prevalent personage of this period was the lawyer
Giuseppe Vandini, that was the first mayor of Argenta after national
unification. During the Second World War Argenta was seriously
damaged by the British Army.
After the post-war period Argenta developed, particularly in the last
15 years. Between the most important economic activities we want to
remember agriculture, building trade, working plastics, commerce of
vegetables and wicker or rush objects. In Argenta we have a large
market on Thursday and a beautiful
Fair in September, apart from theatrical performances and
cultural initiatives.
 Eco-museum: The modern concept of "Eco-museum" has
its origin back in the '70s in France with the notion of musée
éclaté. This term clearly expresses the idea behind it, which
is a type of museum that goes beyond architectural bounds and that,
by enclosing the surrounding territory and socio-cultural
background, opens a channel of communication with external reality.
The Eco-museum of Argenta is composed of three museums and a natural
site: the Museum of Marshes, the Museum of Reclaimed Land, the Civic
Museum and the Oasi of Campotto.
The Museum of Marshes is placed in the former shooting
lodge of Campotto, 4 kilometers far from Argenta town; it's a
historical and natural documentation center. It houses both the
organizational and visiting center of Eco-museum of Argenta, as well
as the center of the Regional Park of the river Po Delta for all
that concern services, information, reservations and guided visits.
It also performs such tasks as tourist orientation around the area.
Thanks to its peculiar communicative and educational system, in
1992, it has been awarded the prize "European Museum of the Year" by
European Committee.
Outside is situated the educational little lake, which puts together
and reflects all the different elements of the surrounding natural
environment, Furthermore, in the museum's courtyard you can find a
parking area as well as a sort of former shooting-box, where
lectures and seminars are held to discuss certain topics in depth
through the teaching instruments that the museum puts at the
visitors' disposal. Finally, at the end of this a coffee break is
also arranged.
Built between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th
century, the structure that houses the museum was originally a
farmhouse of three floor, the original ground floor has been buried
as a result of land reclamation that lifted up the level of soil.
On the actual ground floor the following facilities are available:
the reception, the museum's lobby where are displayed some
cartographical representations of the Oasis and where the bookshop is
also situated, the meeting room, the historical section and the
demonstrative plastic model showing the functioning of mechanical
reclamation; on the upper floor there are the Room of Sounds,
which offers the "Concert of the Marshes", a video that gives the
opportunity to watch and listen to both images and sounds of the
Oasis, with picture of birds and their solo and polyphonic singing;
the Naturalistic Section offers a series of
illustrated panels on the flora and fauna of the Oasis: these panels
tell us about the route of migratory birds and their food, they also
illustrate the height at which each species of birds nests and
obviously all that can be seen in the Oasis (all these instruments
are supported by dioramas and water and land environments models
that faithfully reconstruct the natural wetland; the
Laboratory, finally, supplied with microscopes is made
available to allow visitors, particularly students, to participate in
researches and studies trying to combine theory and practice
together.
The Campotto Site of Argenta was acknowledged as wetland of
international interest by the Ramsàr Convention in 1972, the Oasis is
an open-air museum that extends for about 1600 hectares. It's the
6th site of the river Po Delta Park and is composed of overflowing
terrain case of Campotto, Bassarone, Valle Santa and of Bosco del
Traversante. This is what is left from the large inner humid areas
of fresh water and it functioned as a shooting preserve until '60s.
It was only in 1977 that the Oasis for the safeguard and protection of
flora and fauna called "Valli di Argenta e di Marmorta" (Argenta and
Marmorta Marshes) was created, according to the will of the
Municipality of Argenta, the local authority of Ferrara Province and
the manager-owner body of "Consorzio della Bonifica Renana".
 The Museum of Land Reclamation is sited at 1 km far outside
the built-up areas of Argenta and it's placed within the
water-scooping plant of Saiarino; it's not a simple historical
documentation museum, but rather a sort of true "building" yard. It
is, therefore, a living museum, the history of which is nowadays
still in evolution. The only way to visit the museum is by guided
tour, the museum being located inside an active work yard, which
continuously monitors the situation of water in order to intervene
in case of danger.
The route has been called "A history of men and
waters" with the intention of setting up an indissoluble link
between the two major actors dominating the scene in the museum and
whose interaction has been historically significant: men and water.
The route winds through the park and the buildings of the work yard,
and the visitor needs an average time of 90 minutes to walk through
it. The route is made up of the following stages: the drain of the
bye-wash, the archeological walk-path, the pumps room, the
thermo-electrical plant.
The Civic Museum is situated in the town center of Argenta
and it's housed in the church of San Domenico: the Civic Museum is
the center representing and embodying the historical and urban
environment within the Eco-museum of Argenta. It's made up of the
town Picture Gallery and Archeological Section. The church that
houses the Museum is a typically 14th century one and it was
influenced by Biagio Rossetti's style. Inside, its apse is adorned
by the representation of the "Stories of Saint John the Baptist and
the Doctors of the Church". In order to enjoy the visit to utmost,
it is suggested that the tourist should first follow the artistic
route of the Picture Gallery, which is located in the side niches of
the church, and then admire the archeological collections, placed at
the center of the aisle, that collects the finds of the excavations
made on the territory of Argenta between 1980 and 1993. Those finds
come from the marshy Palmanove, the country church of Saint George
and from Matteotti Street and Vinarola Street in Argenta.
TEXTS ARE PROPERTY OF ARGENTA'S TOURIST OFFICE
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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