Happy Birthday Museum! On Sunday 10 April the Pile-Dwelling Museum of Fiavé celebrates its first 10 years

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the museum's founding, the Department for Cultural Heritage of the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Municipality of Fiavé have organised an afternoon of celebrations.

The event will take place at 14.30 in the garden of the museum, with greetings by the provincial councillor for culture Mirko Bisesti, the mayor of Fiavé Nicoletta Aloisi and Franco Marzatico, Director of the Department for Cultural Heritage. 

On this occasion, Fiavé's pile-dwelling museum will be named after Renato Perini, honorary citizen and discoverer of Fiavé's pile dwellings. The programme includes the opening of the exhibition "Sulle palafitte: una storia che continua" ("On the pile dwellings: a story that goes on") with photographs by Anna Brenna. Free admission to the museum with guided tours in the company of the curators and a musical performance by the Cima Tosa choir. Participation is free, in compliance with current anti-Cvid regulations. The event is organised in collaboration with the local tourist office, the Youth Group and the Alpine Group of Fiavé, and the Judicaria Ecomuseum. In case of bad weather the event will be postponed to Sunday 24 April.

Renato Perini is a fundamental figure for the pile dwellings of Fiavé and the museum bears witness to the archaeological research he directed between 1969 and 1983. He was a teacher at primary school, but later moved to the Archaeological Heritage Office in Trento (he died in 2007). He was an archaeologist in the field. He was awarded a honorary degree by the University of Innsbruck in 1989, twenty years after the start of one of the most important excavations in Italian and European protohistory. In 1994 the Municipality of Fiavé awarded him honorary citizenship.

The exhibition "On the stilts: a story that goes on" features images taken by Lombard photographer Anna Brenna on Inle lake, in the central part of the Myanmar peninsula (formerly Burma). The lake is home to around 70,000 inhabitants, for whom water is an essential element that characterises every aspect of daily life: they live on wooden stilts, grow vegetables and flowers in floating gardens, travel by boat in the channels formed by the lake, wash and do laundry in the lake water, hold markets on the lake and the lake is populated by fishermen. The piles are built of wood; the same material is also used to cover the interiors, which are decorated with carpets, mats and fabrics. A contemporary reality that in the eyes of the author of the images recalls life in the pile-dwelling villages that dotted the subalpine territory 4000 years ago.

After its inauguration, the exhibition will be open to visitors, accompanied by the curators, Luisa Moser and Mirta Franzoi of the office for educational activities of the Archaeological Heritage Office.

With the museum's birthday and the reopening of the Archaeological Park "Archeo Natura" of Fiavé on Saturday 16 April, the Fiavé pile dwelling season starts again, with a series of events for adults and children to discover the fascinating history of this prehistoric site.

Included within the UNESCO world heritage site described as “Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps”, Fiavé represents an exceptionally important point of reference for the history of the most ancient European farming communities.

The museum explores the history of the different pile dwelling settlements following one another along the banks of Lake Carera, a lake of glacial origin, between the Late Neolithic era and the Bronze Age.

The exceptional state of conservation not only of the piles, but also of many organic materials, makes these pile dwellings particularly fascinating, allowing an insight into aspects in the life of prehistoric communities which are generally unknown.

The museum displays a selection of extraordinary objects, many of which are astoundingly modern, replica models and video footage, some installations and a large scale model reproducing a Fiavé village. As a result, visitors will immerse themselves in the atmosphere of a pile dwelling village of 3500 years ago! Furthermore, one section of the museum is dedicated to the unique Fiavé-Carera biotope, a provincial nature reserve and site of European Community interest.