Museo dell'Ombrello e del Parasole - Official site

L'unico al mondo dedicato ad un accessorio indispensabile.
 

Explore the museum:

The history

The exhibition

Informations

The history

Founded in 1939 by the agronomist Igino Ambrosini, passionate about local history, and rebuilt after the war, the Museum of the Umbrella and Parasol in Gignese, a town in the Vergante area, has been in its definitive location in a building on two floors reproducing the silhouette of three umbrellas side by side.

Supported by contributions from the Piedmont region, the Municipality and the association “Amici del Museo”, it houses around 1,500 pieces including grips, sticks, umbrellas and parasols and tells the evolution of fashions that have influenced the style of these accessories from the 1800s to the present.

It also includes historical pieces, umbrellas belonging to painters, cardinals, and the parasol of the Queen Margherita, whose family used to have holidays in Stresa. In the sector of the Museum dedicated to the life of the umbrella makers it is possible to admire the rudimentary tools of the ancient shops, in a journey of memories through the faces, the tools, the workplaces that have characterized the production of umbrellas. A historical itinerary full of images, testimonies and curiosities of an ancient work that the umbrella makers born in the Vergante were able to make known and appreciated all over the world.

To take care of the Museum have provided and continue to provide many disinterested people: volunteers, collectors, studiouses and enthusiasts who want the memory of these lands to be preserved.

Celebration of the 80th anniversary of the foundation.

Eighty years ago Igino Ambrosini (1883-1955) who had already given life with other friends to the Botanical Garden "Alpinia", completed the project that was most...
Read "Celebration of the 80th anniversary of the foundation."

The exhibition

Dedicating a Museum to the parasol and the umbrella was an original idea full of respect and love for umbrella makers who, expecially in the Vergante area, have their roots.

In the glass cases on the ground floor you can see about 150 of the 1500 pieces in the collection, and these are mainly parasols and umbrellas which follow the fashions from the nineteenth century until today. With these you can see examples of materials used to cover umbrellas like silk and synthetic fibres, ivory, wood and silver handles and the small components which make an umbrella practical, beautiful and elegant.

In the second floor you can see fashion pictures and historical documents which describe the use of parasols and rain umbrellas and the umbrella-makers’ trade: from the photos of pioneers to a collection of the tools of the trade, the leather of wooden containers for the  materials needed to repair umbrellas and objects which were part of the everyday life of the travelling umbrella makers and finally some examples from factories all over Italy.

Historical movies

Informations

ADDRESS

Museo dell’ombrello e del Parasole
Viale Golf Panorama n. 2 bis
28836 Gignese (VB) – Italy

Tel. +39 3770841032
Tel. +39 3474457160
info@museodellombrello.org


ADMISSION FEES

  • Standard € 2.50
  • Groups minimum 10 persons € 1.50

OPENING TIMES

From April 1st to September 1st
10:00 – 12:00
15:00 – 18:00
Closed on Monday