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House Museum – "Environments of everyday life"

The House Museum is housed inside the building that was once the Palazzo del Comune (until 1783 when Grand Duke Leopold II sanctioned the transfer of the municipal seat to Cinigiano), and then the Monticello Court. Established in 1986, the museum documents the uses and lifestyles of the high hills and mountains at the end of the nineteenth century, reconstructing their domestic environment with a collection of objects and furnishings. The exhibition is on two floors: on the ground floor, there is a reconstruction of a typical peasant house, with a kitchen and bedroom complete with furniture and furnishings from the late-1800s whose environment is even more suggestive thanks to the originality of the premises, which has remained intact over the centuries. In the lower part, there is the ancient animal-traction oil mill, and various tools and objects relating to agricultural and artisanal production, with particular reference to chestnuts. In the room before the barn, there are agricultural tools on display, such as examples of the Coulter plough, a threshing machine for cereals, and a sieve for selecting seeds. In the stable, you can see the manger, the pig sty, a mechanical forage harvester, and an ancient glaive for cutting hay and grass. Taking the stairs, you enter a room from which you can see the cistern for collecting rainwater for the house, the stable and the olive mill.