Luogo - Museum
Museo del Vino Torgiano (MUVIT)
Where
Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 31, Torgiano (Perugia)
MUVIT – Torgiano Wine Museum
The Museo del Vino—MUVIT—is hosted inside Palazzo Graziani-Baglioni, along the main street of Torgiano, a renowned viniculture production centre between Perugia and Assisi.
This Palace, built in the 17th century, represents an important example of patrician-rural-estate. It was the summer residence of the Perugian Graziani family. Its name “Graziani-Baglioni” is due to the marriage—in the 19th century—of Anna Graziani and Pietro Baglioni.
Its premises have hosted the Wine Museum—MUVIT—since 1974, which was conceived of and realized by the initiative of Giorgio and Maria Grazia Lungarotti.
It represents a unicum if compared with other local museums, because it’s a private museum with a thematic character, and is motivated more by historical and cultural ambitions than by business interests. The collection is subdivided into thematic sections, but all of them are centered on the main subject: wine. Here the visitor can admire rare and important archaeological finds like the wine amphorae, ewers and symposium cups, ceramics from the Early Middle Ages to contemporary times, engravings, winemaking tools and, unique in its genre, a collection of Waffle Irons.
Managed by Lungarotti Foundation, the Museum occupies the rooms of the building that were once used for the storage and processing of agricultural products. Among the most interesting items collected are some ceramics—dated from the 16th century—of the Master Giorgio Andreoli, skilful master of the lusterware technique; engravings from Mantegna to Picasso and also the 18th century monumental wine press named “Catone”, active until 1973.
Peculiar beer steins—of a convivial banquet kind such as “drink if you can”, alluding to ironic and convivial games—are exhibited inside the Museum, and the visitor is invited to find the mechanism that lets him get to the wine.