The museum path called “The places of the Elsewhere” tells the story of the amusement park, from the beginning in the ancient world to the present day. It is divided into five sections/themes:
1 - The origins >>
2 - The fair >>
3 - The amusement park >>
4 - The people of the journey and the daydream industry in northern Polesine >>
5 - Amusement parks in miniature >>
The setting up of the museum is plain, accurate, aesthetically agreeable. The different materials are displayed in the halls following two parallel display lines: a series of inclined tables supported by iron feet describes the path while going along the hall perimeter walls. Another series of tables – 90 cm height – hanging on the wall, runs along the whole path.
Some findings and models of amusement devices are placed in the middle of the halls
La prima sala comprende la prima sezione dal titolo Le Origini e presenta, attraverso un'interessante iconografia, una serie di giochi e spettacoli del luna park contemporaneo, che hanno origini prevalentemente rituali nel mondo classico antico, dalla cultura egizia e greco-romana, come il "Labirinto", la "Divinazione", il "Mostro inghiottitore" dei riti iniziatici, i "Percorsi sotterranei nel mondo degli Inferi" (Omero, Dante), i giochi del Circo, che hanno radici nella cultura egizia, ecc.
The second section is called The Fair. The fair started in the Middle Ages round the year One Thousand, essentially for commercial reasons.
A photomural on the wall of the second hall represents a fair of the seventeenth century where the market was not only a place to exchange goods but also an occasion for social meeting and cultural enrichment. All around there are pictures of typical characters who used to enliven the pre-industrial fairs: quacks, tumblers, musicians, balladeers, acrobats, jugglers, puppeteers with their theatres, tamers, magic lantern men, comedians, wizards, etc.
Click on images for zoom in and full description:
The third section is dedicated to the Amusement Park that is an evolution of the fair. It started when the industrial revolution and the consequent mechanization introduced the machines. Little by little they replaced the performances due only to human resources and human imagination.
The funfair became then an amusement park with its vertigo roundabouts, round the beginning of the XX century in Europe and from the 1950s in Italy.
In the same section some pictures and models show the origin and evolution of some roundabouts, as the big wheel, the roller coaster, the roundabout, the chain ride.
Click on images for zoom in and full description:
The fourth section is dedicated to the local culture: The People of the Journey and the Daydream Industry.
Two hundred photographs and a number of text-books testimony how the phenomenon of the travelling show in Bergantino started in the 1920s. They also present the story of a group of families, managers of the travelling performances and manufacturers, who opened up the road to the Industrial District of the Funfair of northern Polesine.
The fifth section, called Amusement Park in miniature, displays some ten big models of merry-go-rounds of various periods, on the staircase of the first floor of the building. They are perfectly working to the children and adults’ great delight. They are models built by amusement park buffs who have used only reclaiming materials.
URL: http://www.smppolesine.it/ bergantino /eng_pagine/collezioni.php | Last update: 03 August 2011 11:40:08