HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM

“The National Museum of Pasta, unique in the world, is also an“ anticipatory ”museum, ie the first dedicated to a specific food product.

The museum is managed by the Agnesi foundation. The collection started by Vincenzo Agnesi had as its first location, in 1958, the ancient family home of Pontedassio, near Imperia. Subsequently located in the sixteenth-century palace of Piazza Scanderbeg, near the Trevi Fountain.

Inside, room after room, you can discover how pasta is made from wheat and what are the procedures used in kneading and drying, both in the ancient artisan process and in modern industrial technology: from "rudimentary machines", such as first stone millstones, to modern mixers.

We will also discover the all-Italian invention, the most important, which made possible the development of pasta all over the world, namely the creation of "dry pasta". The innovation that has allowed it to be kept in perfect condition for months and even years. Thus in the eleven exhibition rooms, through the ears of durum wheat, King Ruggero II, Idrìsi, Trabìa, farfalle, spaghetti and macaroni, Totò, Ingrid Bergman, flour and semolina, you can "savor" the history of our "First cultural".

Il museo gestisce dal 1992 un premio arrivato nel 2021 alla XXII Edizione. Il museo comprende una biblioteca con volumi che documentano l'evoluzione della pasta, che conserva una collezione di editti e di cataloghi di pastifici.

Museum rooms:

• "Grain room": exhibits a grinding wheel and explanatory panels on the production of pasta
• "Sala ligure": exhibits models of production machines
• "Sala Valeriani": photographs of famous people eating pasta are exhibited
• "Sala Travaglini": artisan presses with dies are exhibited
• "Industrial archeology room": dedicated to the paleo-industrial phase
• "Rubino Scaglione Room": works by various artists are exhibited, including Rubino Scaglione
• "Sala Montuschi": a still functioning paleo-industrial pasta factory is exhibited
• "Sala Santi Correnti": exhibits the documentation relating to the 12th century of the invention of pasta
• "Sala Cordeglio Penèl": tools for the production of handmade pasta are exhibited
• "Sala Paolo Emilio Taviani": on display a machinery for continuous production
• "Nutrition room"

Currently the Vincenzo Agnesi Foundation has lent various machines for the production of pasta to the Museum "The pasta factory of Gragnano", it is possible to view the museum page by clicking on the following button.