The MILANOLLO THEATRE

hosts the annual season of plays, a review in Piedmont dialect, dance shows, theatre-school, Sundays at the theatre for families, concerts…. and varied events that range through different styles and eras to satisfy every expectation.

Thanks to cooperation with the numerous associations around Savigliano (in both the cultural and sports sectors), every year the town can offer a varied calendar of events including some exhibitions that are valued well beyond the local area, such as the International Agricultural Machinery Show (Fiera Internazionale della Meccanizzazione Agricola), Quintessenza, the Bread Festival, the Easter procession, Strasavian mini-marathon, Sport in Piazza….

The Civic Library

L. Baccolo, in piazza Arimondi n. 15, was founded in 1881 with books coming from libraries in convents that had been shut down; it was further enriched with donations, bequests (Emanuele Tapparelli d’Azeglio, Biagio Casalis, Casimiro Turletti, Stefano Musante) and purchases (Libreria Franchino). The library is characterized by books on general culture, but also has a notable section on local documents (donated by Attilio Bonino) and an ample Children’s Section. Kept in the nearby former church of St. Agostino, is the library belonging to Santorre di Santarosa.

SAVIGLIANO TOWN COUNCIL HISTORICAL ARCHIVE

is among the most precious and complete in Piedmont, preserving a remarkable heritage of records of historical and cultural merit, which dates back to 1227. Alongside comparatively recent material of particular interest for modern and contemporary history, there are also very old records, such as the Pergamene (where you can find the act of dedication by the men of Manta di Saluzzo, dated 1227, and the oldest document in the archive), Council resolutions starting from 1368 up to today, with just a few records missing, real estate registers dating as far back as 1370 and also iconographic records, drawings… The archive is open to students and enthusiasts, documents can be consulted in hard copy or in computer based form.

IL CENTRO DELLA MEMORIA (MEMORY HUB)

THE PROJECT “THE TOWN REDISCOVERED” Beginning in 2006 the Cultural office for the town of Savigliano supported an experimental project in collaboration with the DialogART association, with the aim of reconstructing the past of the town through memories, images and the accounts of people’s experiences, to provide an incubator of memories and ideas. The project developed the Memory Hub, where, through an interactive theatre, you can listen to the voices of some Saviglianese talking about their lives, making a treasure of these important fragments of memory and local identity. In 2011 the Memory Hub was transferred into some rooms near the Historical Archives and the Civic Library, which deal with its management and opens it to the public.
Inside there is a multimedia structure, the Memory Theatre, a small white, wooden theatre. Opposite it there are 21 silhouettes hanging from a rod. Each one tells a story. Slide a silhouette into a slot and the theatre comes magically to life. 10 witnesses talk about Savigliano in the 1900s: the war, life in the villages, the festivals and harvests, the work of the men in the “Officina” (train factory) and the daily work of the women at home or in the spinning mills. Their accounts are accompanied by films from the period and old photographs projected on the backdrop.
At the memory hub you can also see documentaries and films produced on other material collected, as well as all the photographic material accumulated during the project “The Town Rediscovered”. The Historical Archive also produced video interviews with partisans from Savigliano and the voluntary association “Attività e cultura per Savigliano” made video interviews about agriculture and the work in the Società Nazionale delle Officine di Savigliano (train factory) (later Fiat Ferroviaria and now Alstom). All the audio and video material collected and used in the documentaries and films in the Memory Hub are kept in their entirety at the Historical Archives, which deals with providing access to them for those wishing to study them.
The new venue for the Memory Hub is seen as a point of reference for those who are curious about the past of their town and want to talk about it, to provide information, to supply further photographic material about Savigliano in the last century.

THE CIVIC MUSEUM A. OLMO AND GIPSOTECA D. CALANDRA

are located in the buildings of the convent and Church of San Francesco, built in 1661by the Frati Minori of the Rules of St. Francis. It has had various uses: as a salt and tobacco deposit, civic boarding school, military barracks, dwellings and the fire brigade headquarters. From 1970 the building has been home to the Civic Museum and from 1973 the Gipsoteca. The architecture features a cloister with four colonnades characterized by simple lines, materials and decorations.
The museum houses artifacts and artistic masterpieces of regional importance (archeological finds, collection of furnishings from the old pharmacy at the Hospital SS. Annunziata, paintings partly donated from significant private collections and souvenirs from the romantic period belonging to the Saviglianese violinists the Milanollo sisters….) Of national importance is the Gipsoteca dedicated to Davide Calandra, which occupies the whole of the former Church of San Francesco and holds over one hundred works by the sculptor from Turin (1856-1915) including casts, sketches, and models in plaster, clay and terracotta.

MÙSES ACCADEMIA EUROPEA DELLE ESSENZE (EUROPEAN ACADEMY OF ESSENCES)

is a techno-sensorial museum. Starting with the rediscovery of the aromatic herbs of Piedmont, the visitor is taken on a transnational journey through the art of perfume making, the scents and essences of the land. Site-specific works by international contemporary artists, multi-sensorial installations and poly-functional scientific laboratories make MùSES a museum able to offer an innovative cultural itinerary, which is at the same time based on the traditions and lifestyle of the local area.

MUSEO REGIONALE FERROVIARIO “SOMMEILER-GRANDIS-GRATTONI” (RAILWAY MUSEUM)

is dedicated to the memory of the three great engineers who planned the tunnel at Frejus, and was inaugurated in 2003. It holds some precious items that tell the story of the train and the railway in Italy.
The Museum structure comprises a multi-purpose building that houses an exhibition room, library, conference room, offices and facilities. From this building visitors can access the purely railway part of the museum, where the most important elements are:

• The turntable and connected “round house” constituting a proper locomotive deposit which may be used in the future as a workshop for the maintenance and restoration of rolling stock;
• – The terminal station, basic and functional with two tracks;
• – The marshalling yard, where wagons and carriages are displayed.

Inside the exhibition centre there is a fine collection of models trains from around the world, various objects, photographs, documents and models (including a large digital computerised model railway) that reproduce stretches of different railways.

Today the exhibition boasts a good deal of rolling stock besides periodic railway themed exhibitions. The Museum maintains some working steam locomotives used during historical re-enactments or demonstrations.