He opens his great-grandparents' house, where he himself was born, to the public to make it a copper museum and there he exhibits 200 objects that he meticulously searched for throughout Italy for almost two decades. He is Antonio Tronca, a retired mathematics and science teacher, who in his ancestors' home reconstructed the different environments in which rural life once took place. The museum, officially opened today, is located in Raiano, a town of 2630 inhabitants, 15 km from Sulmona, on the route of the ancient Celano-Foggia sheep track. "Here is the hearth with the pans, pots, pans, cauldrons, ladles - explains Andrea Giampietro, writer and cultural operator from Sulmona - and above all the conche, from the Abruzzo one to the Ciociara one, from the one in Agnone and the one called 'Sulmontina' , probably because it was manufactured in Sulmona, with its 'concaro': a particular cabinet placed against the kitchen wall on which the conches were placed. And also the bedroom with the foot warmer and the bed warmer, made up of a copper brazier and a wooden 'priest' , that is, a frame of curved boards joined at the ends within which the brazier was placed. And then the cellar with the press, washer, funnels, tanks and spray pump".
A museum that Tronca wanted to name after the last coppersmith of the area, Fioravante Baglione, who passed away in 1967, who worked in L'Aquila and then in Raiano until the 1960s, participated in exhibitions in Italy and abroad and was awarded the Medal d'Oro on the occasion of the International Exhibition of Art, Commerce, Science and Industry in 1922.
"Why did the coppersmith's profession disappear? First of all because, being toxic, copper had to be tinned, especially to make kitchen objects - explains Tronca - Tin is subject to consumption because it melts at a temperature far lower than that of copper, which was ultimately supplanted first by aluminum and then by stainless steel. But very expensive copper kitchen tools are still produced, such as rice cookers for elite restaurants."
Set up since last December, but so far only open on call, the Raiano Copper Museum officially opens its doors from today, two days a week, Thursdays and Saturdays from 4pm to 6pm, as well as by reservation also on holidays. Entrance is free.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA