Museums and religious buildings

Last update 26 November 2018

Museums

House of memory of resistance and deportation

The project of the House of Memory, born in July 2005, with the proposal of the President of the Piedmontese section of the ex-deported association Ferruccio Maruffi to build a regional documentation center dedicated to the deportation of politicians and civilians to the Nazi concentration camps. Five years later, that proposal became a reality with the inauguration, on Sunday 5 December, of the House of the memory of resistance and deportation. The date chosen is not accidental: on December 5, 1944, a group of boys from Vinchio and neighboring countries was captured by Germans and fascists and deported to Germany. Among those who did not return there was also a 17-year-old boy: Vittorio Benzi.

The House, which is located in the former Town Hall, where the municipal library and the museum of Davide Lajolo are located, has been set up by the Israt and will be managed thanks to an agreement between the Regional Council of Piedmont and the Israt.

The museum path of the House of memory has as its guiding thread the relationship between the peasant world, the Resistance and the political and civil deportation, integrating with the paths realized by the Israt with the project "The paths of freedom" and the Multimedia Museum window on the history set up in the Synagogue of Asti.

On the large terrace in front of the premises, in ten bulletin boards, the economic and social reality of the peasant countries of Lower Piedmont is presented, characterized by the small peasant property, hit by the war and directly crossed by the civil war after September 8, 1943.

The main themes of the House of memory are:

1. the self-defense choice of young people who take up arms to protect their homes and their territory;
2. the experience of partisan self-government in the autumn of 1944;
3. Nazi-fascist strategies for land control: in particular, the dramatic round-up of December 1944 was first read through the unpublished documentation of the German part.
4. the deportation of partisans, renitents, stragglers and civilians (325 from Asti).

The House offers installations, technological structures and panels of graphics that offer visitors suggestions and multimedia elements of knowledge of the events represented.

A documentary called TRIANGOLI ROSSI, lasting 30 minutes and edited by Nicoletta Fasano and Mario Renosio, collects and recounts the memories of the deportees from the Asti area.

For visitors, schools, databases and in-depth materials are available on computer support. Thematic volumes available at the Municipal Library.

For more details, click on: www.casamemoriavinchio.it

Multimedia Museum of Davide Lajolo – “Vinchio is my nest”

The permanent exhibition consists of a montage of photographs, letters, poems, on significant backgrounds familiar to the writer.

It’s Davide Lajolo who tells himself, comments on situations, events, characters in a sort of long self-portrait. What emerges is a biographical path which is also the story of a generation called to epochal life choices that Lajolo has experienced in the first person and told in his books. Objects belonging to the writer are exhibited and a video section is available.

The chapters of the multimedia museum are:

• My people: My people are inside me like plants, green grass, hills, the red sun at sunset.

• The partisan: After the black months of waiting, after the days of liberation, this land was truly ours, because we had loved it to the brim.

• The journalist: I pass the news for tomorrow's newspaper, it's as if I could shell the world with my fingers.

• The town: Vinchio is my nest, I was born in the time of blond wheat.

• The deputy: History of words is made in the Chamber of Deputies.

• The writer: I struggled with my imagination as a child, built castles and not all in the air, because I built them with the fertile land of my countryside.

For more details, click on: www.davidelajolo.it

The farmer's museum

Along the literary itinerary of Davide Lajolo "I bricchi del Barbera", the outdoor wine museum "Vinchio e le colline della Barbera" was created, illustrating the cycle of work in the vineyards, thus integrating the environmental, cultural, historical and enogastronomic present on the territory and allowing a continuous return between literature and rural culture.

The museum installations are located outdoors in the countryside because the entire hilly landscape is considered a living and productive museum, to be enjoyed in its environmental beauty, in the traces of history and rural memory, in the symbolic evocation of literature.

The museum itinerary is marked according to the seasons of farm work identified with showcases and installations that explain through traditional images and texts the traditional works of viticulture and winemaking, easily usable by tourists in an itinerary on the territory.

The agrarian vintage, during which the life of the farmer is characterized by hard work in the countryside but also by moments of celebration, has been divided into three parts:

• the first part, called "the rest of the earth", starts from S. Martino and from sowing and goes up to the pruning of the vine (winter season) and is illustrated in the area near the bricco di S. Michele.

• the second part concerns "the works of the awakening of nature" (spring) and "the works of the hot sun" (summer) and is illustrated at the equipped area in the Noche district.

• the third part describes "the cycle of harvesting and vinification" (autumn) and is illustrated in the equipped area in Vascirone.

The route that connects the three areas is partly developed on paved roads and partly on dirt, it can be traveled on foot, by bicycle, on horseback (and possibly also by car) and is suitable for the implementation of educational activities with schools.The route that connects the three areas is partly developed on paved roads and partly on dirt, it can be traveled on foot, by bicycle, on horseback (and possibly also by car) and is suitable for the implementation of educational activities with schools.

Sede Musei: Ex Municipio - Via Cap. Laiolo
For information: Comune di Vinchio - Tel. 0141/950120

Religious buildings

San Marco Church

The Parish Church is dedicated to the Evangelist San Marco. Composed of the origin of a single central nave, it was later enlarged with the addition of the two side aisles in the XVIII century.

The vault of the central nave is decorated with valuable frescoes. The baroque altar in polychrome marble is very beautiful. On the walls of the right aisle are placed two large paintings on canvas depicting: the Madonna of the Rosary and the Supplication of the souls of Purgatory to the Virgin Mary, dating back to the late 1600s and early 1700s. On the back wall of the apse stands out the great painted on canvas, enclosed by a rich wooden frame, by San Marco Evangelista, owner of the Church.

The painting dates back to 1853 and is the work of the painter. Inside is the bust of the Venerable Fratel Teodoreto and a plaque commemorates the date of his baptism on February 10, 1871.

The architecture of the façade is marked by pilasters and the upper crown consists of a triangular tympanum. Inside two niches are the statues of St. Mark the Evangelist, owner of the church, and of St. Vincent, patron saint of the village. The bell tower, in bricks, dates back to 1767.

PARROCCHIA di SAN MARCO – DIOCESI DI ASTI
Piazza San Marco, 1 
Tel./Fax 0141/950.125
e-mail: smarco@provincia.asti.it
http: www.provincia.asti.it/hosting/sanmarco

Confraternita S.S. Trinità – Chiesa ( Church of Battuti )

The building of the SS. Trinità (16th century) is commonly called "Chiesa dei Battuti", because it was the place where the confreres called "Batì" were gathered. It rises near the Parish Church of San Marco.

The interior of the church with a single nave, with barrel vaults and lower arches, was built in the nineteenth century. In the fifties it was abandoned and partially collapsed.

In 1996 a courageous reconstruction and restoration work began. The church is now completely renovated and functional as a meeting place and for cultural initiatives (exhibitions, concerts, conferences, etc.). On the back wall of the presbytery is a painting on canvas depicting the S.S. Trinity with the Virgin Mary and San Vincenzo.

Votive churches and chapels

In the countryside, in addition to the Parish Church of San Marco and the Parish Church in Noche dedicated to San Defendente, there are many churches where holy masses are celebrated. Mass on special occasions: San Sebastiano, Santa Petronilla, San Giovanni Bosco, San Michele.

In addition, many crossings are marked by small votive chapels, with t simple architectural lines that testify to the deep religious spirit of the community.