National Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions

The National Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions, located in the EUR district of Rome, is a unique institution that celebrates and preserves the richness of Italian cultural heritage. Founded on the occasion of the Italian Ethnographic Exhibition of 1911, the museum collects and documents the popular traditions of all Italian regions, offering a fascinating glimpse into daily life and cultural practices from the 16th to the 20th century. The museum is housed in the Palace of Popular Traditions, an imposing building designed by architect Cesare Bazzani and inaugurated in 1956. The building itself is a significant example of fascist period architecture, with sober and monumental lines that reflect the ideology and aesthetics of the time. The museum spans four floors and offers a wide range of permanent and temporary exhibitions. The museum’s collection is extraordinarily rich and varied, including over one hundred thousand objects that testify to Italian popular traditions. Among these, there are about seven hundred regional costumes, over four thousand pieces of jewelry, more than six thousand wooden artifacts, and numerous tools and crafts. These objects tell stories of daily life, religious festivals, ancient trades, and folk art, offering visitors a deep immersion into the culture and traditions of the different Italian regions. One of the museum’s strengths is the section dedicated to traditional costumes, which presents a vast and detailed collection of clothing and accessories from all regions of Italy. These costumes, rich in colors and details, reflect the cultural diversity and sartorial traditions of the country, offering a visual insight into Italian history. Another fascinating section is dedicated to ritual and religious objects. Here, one can admire ex-votos, votive objects offered to saints as a sign of gratitude for a grace received, which represent a deeply rooted religious practice in Italian popular culture. These objects range from simple painted tablets to detailed wax sculptures depicting healed body parts. The museum also houses a vast collection of traditional musical instruments, from bagpipes to tambourines, which testify to the rich tradition of Italian popular music. These instruments are often accompanied by audio recordings that allow visitors to listen to the sounds and melodies of the different regions. In 2016, the National Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions became part of the Museum of Civilizations, an institution that brings together several museums in Rome under one direction. This reorganization has improved the management of collections and promoted a more integrated and comprehensive view of Italian cultural history.