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The Chestnut Museum was set up by some volunteers to testify the importance that chestnut trees have always had in the Roggio Valley area. The cultivation of those plants has, in fact, been documented in that area since the early Middle Ages: in 1985, a parchment dating from the year 828 spoke of the cultivation of chestnuts for nourishment in Colognora.

Painstaking research and restoration work has allowed the recovery of relics that had already been collected and exhibited in a temporary exhibition since 1979 in the same premises granted by the local parish.

The museum is now organized into two sections. One features the use of chestnut wood in different times (carpentry, tubs, baskets, building wood, tannin, coal, etc.); the other part of this facility is dedicated to the cultivation of chestnut for nourishment: on display, there are several tools for grafting the chestnut tree, pruning, harvesting, drying, “beating”, milling, conservation, and cooking.
Near the Museum, a path in the woods – “the chestnut path” – has been created and packed with information, eventually leading to an area with several varieties of protected chestnut trees can be observed and studied.

The museum has been recently enriched with an educational room – truly one of its kind – where visitors can find a wealth of information on the varieties of chestnuts, the largest trees in the Lucchesia and in Italy, chestnut diseases, and nutritional values of chestnut flour.

In that very room, there is also a large themed library. Such special section was created in collaboration with the University of Florence, the Istituto Superiore S. Anna of Pisa, the State Forestry Corps, the ASL 2 of Lucca, and the Institute of Forestry Research and Documentation on the chestnut IRF.

Text source:
http://www.luccaterre.it/it/dettaglio/2877/Museo-del-Castagno.html
http://www.museodelcastagno.it

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)