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The Ethnographic Museum of Romagna’s Traditions and Customs, inaugurated in 1981, was born from the patient and passionate work of collection initiated in the late 1960s by a group of volunteers.
In 1973, this group formally organized into an Ethnographic Committee under the guidance of Giuseppe Sebesta—an ethnographer and museologist who at the time was director of the Museum of the Traditions and Customs of the People of Trentino—with the goal of establishing a scientific foundation for the creation of a museum.

The first official document mentioning the museum as a project dates back to 1971, followed in 1973 by the City Council resolution that formally established it. Alongside ongoing field research and the continuous collection of ethnographic materials and artifacts, efforts began in the early 1970s to restore the old municipal slaughterhouse (built in 1924), which at that time was used as a storage facility, with the intention of converting it into the future museum.

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In 1981, the Municipal Administration launched a public competition to appoint the director of the museum institute, and in 1983, the first official statute was approved, defining its structure and management bodies.

In November 1989, thanks to a grant from the Emilia-Romagna Region, the museum was inaugurated in its newly expanded and updated form, with the addition of new sections and educational services.

The Ethnographic Research and Documentation Center was opened in 1985, marking the beginning of systematic research campaigns and documentation efforts. With the establishment of this center, the museum developed archives and tools for scientific outreach, including research laboratories aimed at studying folk traditions and producing audiovisual documentation, publications, temporary exhibitions, conferences, study days, and educational initiatives.
The center also includes a specialized library and periodicals archive focused on ethno-anthropology, along with significant collections of audiovisual, photographic, and iconographic sources.

Since 1996, the museum has operated as a public institution with cultural and administrative autonomy, adopting the acronym MET (Museo Etnografico) in its official logo.

It all began in 1971, with the realization of a vision: a museum dedicated to cultural identity and popular traditions.

The Museum of the Traditions and Customs of the People of Romagna

The Ethnographic Museum collects and preserves the cultural heritage of the people of a land rich in popular traditions: Romagna, particularly its southern area, nestled between the Apennines and the Adriatic coast.

The objects and tools on display—both indoors and in the open-air sections—carry with them the history and, in a sense, the very soul of this region. They offer insight into its environment and daily life.

Inside the museum, visitors encounter the history, culture, and traditions of a people, in all their diverse and sometimes lesser-known expressions: symbols, rituals, social life, and art.

…Where peoples become aware of their originality, they can justly study their culture by themselves, that is, from within..
C. Lévi-Strauss

The MET

The Museum of the Traditions and Customs of the People of Romagna aims primarily to be a living space for research and the understanding of the culture of a people. Its main interest is to capture the various aspects that form the popular traditions of the southern Romagna region (symbolism, social life, work, rituals, and art).

Its goals are therefore to collect, organize, and study materials related to the history, economy, dialects, folklore, customs, and practices of the people of Romagna; to promote and publish studies and research with a focus on demography and anthropology, especially related to material experiences, fostering dialogue with schools and collaborating with university institutions; and finally, to promote the dissemination and understanding of customs, traditions, and technologies through conferences, courses, and workshops.

The MET has chosen to invest its resources and energy in engaging with its local area, or perhaps more specifically, in seeking opportunities and languages for a meaningful dialogue with the social communities that this area expresses.

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The MET is an open museum, aware of its scientific autonomy, yet welcoming interaction with the public and the city, recognizing the value of its presence within the community.

While the museum preserves fragments of the expression of history and culture, it is on these fragments that the ethnographic museum feels committed to the task of restitution—not of objects, but of spaces where cultural and social opportunities for reflection and encounter can occur.

The former slaughterhouse on Via Montevecchi, home to the Ethnographic Museum, is today considered an important monument of industrial archaeology. It was built in the 1930s during the fascist regime.

The slaughtering activity inside the building, despite the events of the Second World War and specific sanitary emergencies, continued until the 1970s, when its closure was decided.

In 1974, the City Council decided to transform the former municipal slaughterhouse into the home of the Ethnographic Museum.

“Paolo Toschi” Library

The “Paolo Toschi” Library, available for consultation at the “Antonio Baldini” Library in Santarcangelo di Romagna (Via Pascoli, 3), specializes in demography, ethnology, and anthropology. It represents the natural bibliographic extension of the Museum of the Traditions and Customs of the People of Romagna, with which it shares the same location.

A central element of the C.E.R.D. Library is its collection, which includes not only current and special holdings but also dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a periodicals section.

This library is entirely dedicated to the human sciences, covering all its major aspects. It holds more than 6,000 volumes selected on anthropology, ethnology, and history, as well as works on prose and narrative related to tales, myths, legends, and fairy tales. The collection also includes books on ballads, songs, games, music, and poetry.

Additionally, the library houses works on popular theater and puppet theater, including puppets, marionettes, and other forms of animated theater, as well as customs related to rural life, daily life, festivals, and fairs.

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The library also houses numerous publications on geography, language, the arts, crafts, rural architecture, and food. A large section is dedicated to popular beliefs, ranging from mythology and legends to magic, medicine, and divination, as well as traditional languages and numerous proverbs and riddles for both children and adults.

In addition to the current bibliographic collection, which is regularly updated with periodicals and ongoing acquisitions, the Museum’s library also includes special bibliographic collections, consisting of homogeneous bibliographic bodies, special editions, and antiquarian books. An important donation is that of Angelo Fabi, which consists of a significant number of volumes from the first half of the 20th century, focused on popular traditions.

The periodicals section collects journals and periodicals on the humanities, both national and international, with a total of 45 journals.

The MET Library’s access to the SBN network of the Romagna library system has led to a new cataloging of the volumes, aligning the cataloging data with other libraries in the Romagna region. Participation in this network allows users to consult books online and benefit from interlibrary loans in accordance with the regulations set by the Romagna library system.

The Center’s Archive

The documentary archive of the Center consists of several sections.

Video Library

Films and documentaries produced by the Museum and other research and production institutions on ethnographic and anthropological topics.
Films produced by MET include: “Journey into the Space and Soul of a Museum,” “Ironworking Art and Craftsmanship in Santarcangelo di Romagna: Iron and Fire,” “The Blacksmith’s Trade,” and “The Way of the Mills.”

Image Library

Drawings and images from the Romagnolo canvas print tradition.

Audio Library

Audio material consisting of interviews on anthropological, ethnographic, and archaeological topics; Italian folk songs and music, with a particular focus on Romagna.

Photographic Archive

The Documentation Center houses a rich photographic heritage, partly private and partly public, covering a wide time span from the mid-1800s to the 1970s.