| The olive-oil museum - Click here to download the flyer |
The fascinating story of an everyday product
In order to make the most of and help the public know more about the agricultural life of
Umbria, the Vecchio Frantoio Bartolomei has created a museum of its own, collecting old
machinery and vintage objects regarding the cultivation of olives. The museum is always
open to the public. The exhibition provides an itinerary that takes the visitor through
the phases of the production of olive oil, from the growing of the olive trees, to the
gathering of the fruit, from their processing to the storing of the end product.
In visiting the exhibition rooms, where vintage photographs and illustrations are also
on view, the visitor is guided in the discovery of the secrets of a cultivation that
goes back to over 6000 years.
Our olive mill proudly displays one of the rare examples of sixteenth-century presses as
well as antiques, archaeological finds, curios and machines used up to a few years ago
that bear witness to the time-honored devotion and passion of the Bartolomei family
for this type of agriculture.
Among the services offered:
- visit to the museum and tasting
- video in two languages (Italian and English) on how olive oil is extracted
- plenty of free parking
- mini-courses on oil tasting
- spacious garden where the visitor can relax, and with a playground for children
Book
your visit to the museum.
|
|
|
SIXTEENTH-CENTURY OIL PRESS
Used to press the olive paste produced after the olives had been crushed by the
millstones, the structure consisted of two upright beams, firmly planted in the
ground, which supported a horizontal press-beam that housed an endless screw,
initially of wood and later iron. The screw had four holes at the top into which
was inserted a wooden bar used to turn the screw.
The screws of the press were carved completely by hand. Visible are the chisel marks
that traced the screw threads, making it possible to fit them perfectly into their
housing.
|
PRESERVING THE OIL AND VARIOUS INSTRUMENTS AND USES OF THE OLIVE OIL
In order to last, the olive oil had to be carefully conserved. There were various
instruments used. Visible in the photo are terra cotta jars (orci or ziri) glazed
inside, analyses test tubes with old samples of oil,
oil cruets and
containers for the holy oil. The oil lamps are particularly
interesting. They reused old oil.
|
|
|
SPRAYING
Spraying is indispensable in disinfecting the olives to prevent diseases
(olive knot, olive fly...). A rudimentary form of manual pump such as the one
on display, mounted on two wheels, was used for this purpose.
On the right are baskets, ladders and wooden boxes.
|
VARIOUS TYPES OF PLOWS
The photo shows various wooden plows, dating to different periods,
with iron reinforcements, fixed one-way structures. The "perticara",
mould-board, a one-way sod-turning device made from a single block of cast iron and
used to guide the furrow slice and turn the sod. The "voltorecchio"
is another typical cast-iron plow consisting of a concave panel that turned on
its axis thanks to a particular mechanism known as "orecchietta" so
that at the end of the furrow it could turn around and go back in the opposite
direction.
|
|
|
TURBINE, PRESSES AND MILLSTONES FOR GRAIN (WHEAT)
Animals (horse, mule, donkey) or human beings were hitched up to the millstones
and rotated them around a central pivot. Not until the early 1800s was animal
power replaced in part by specific technical means, the first of which were
water presses. The photo shows a type of machine to be attached to waterpower.
It is a rudimentary form of water turbine, which used waterpower
to impart a rotary motion to the millstones mounted on the pinion.
|
|
|
