Eco Museum on Straw Farming traditions

When saying "straw hair", nobody thinks of the effort of the farmers to obtain the "fastughi" from the newly harvested wheat. The thin strands of straw for weaving the "drèssa" (braid). The thinner one, just three millimetres wide, was called "the Marostica weave". Hats and "sporte" (bags) sewn with it by peasant women and children were the result of a high level hand craftsmanship. The displayed objects are original, placed in two rooms on the first floor of the Eco Museum on Straw Farming Tradition of Corsara di Marostica, and document the technique of straw processing in agriculture and in domestic handicraft. It involved thousands of peasants in the hills and mountains of the Sette Comuni, from the seventeenth century until the first half of the twentieth century. The museum occupies a building with three floors, facing the square of the parish church, and was once the seat of the Municipality of Crosara, and then used since 1939 as elementary school, which functioned until its closure in the eighties. The collections of the museum bear witness of the activity, which has characterized the region since the end of 1600: the processing of straw and the cultvation of black cherry, the typical product, the production of which continues with the cherries of Marostica (PGI). The Eco Museum houses a collection of nowadays rare artefacts and tools, original documents and historic photographs, chronicling the life of the past: dishes, linens and household items, tools used in animal breeding, in processing of milk, in working of fields, or used by cobblers. The museum's library offers a collection of texts about the area and local crafts.