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The Medici del Vascello Museum

A new museum itinerary has been created on the ground floor of the same wing of Borgo Castello housing the Royal Apartments. It was created with the aim of telling the history of La Mandria during the period of ownership of the Marquis Medici del Vascello (1887 – 1976) through the exhibition of particularly evocative materials, i.e. the attempt at self-government and the attempt to convert from a hunting reserve to a farm–cum-hunting estate.

This is an initial nucleus of the future museum. Eventually, there will also be a large map of the estate, a collection of carriages and many other iconographic elements. All will be organised into scenes and with technological supports capable of helping people relive the history and the emotions of that era and the life of a community that used to live within the walls of La Mandria.

The Medici del Vascello Museum can be visited on the same days and with the same opening hours as the Royal Apartments by guided tour only. Guided tours only at the following times:

Just as the Royal Apartments bear testimony to a very important historical period in which the figure of King Vittorio Emanuele II dominated, the exhibition “La Mandria from Vittorio Emanuele II to the Medici del Vascello” aims at documenting the life of the community that lived here during the first half of the 1900’s. Over the years, La Mandria has been transformed from the main hunting location and thoroughbred horse breeding ground into a farm. In 1923, two important improvements were made and along with this, modern buildings and farmsteads were built, among which, the Peppinella, which is a breeding centre for select animals.

Borgo Castello houses the manor house, the administrative offices, the schools, the church and the workshops. In 1933 zootechnical activity experienced a significant boost. This concentrated around the breeding of the bruna alpina and valdostana cows. The production of milk increased extensively and it became advantageous to sell it in sealed bottles, certifying quality. In 1935 the first bottling plant was created, arriving at a production capacity of more than two thousand litres per day in sterilized containers closed by capsules containing indications of the date of sale to the public. Following this, production also became specialised in the packaging of YOMO brand yoghurt. The company also has smaller breeding activities with pigs on the Rubbianetta farmstead, as well as mules and fowl. An electrical energy production plant was set up to supply power to the numerous pieces of farm machinery with a main hydroelectric power plant supplied by the water originating from the River Stura di Lanzo as well as a secondary thermoelectric power station with a diesel engine.

The farm also included thirteen farmsteads operating on a sharecropping basis and a further fifteen leased out, with an overall population of 896 inhabitants during the period of major development and a maximum of 87 children. The “Scuole Private La Mandria”, already set up by Vittorio Emanuele II and later modernised and enlarged, included pre-school and four primary classes.

All of this information is documented at the Medici del Vascello museum, where the exhibits on show give visitors an idea of a time gone by - not so long ago - where the history and emotions of that time are relived along with the life of a community that lived within the walls of La Mandria. It was a life of people who mostly never left their community until after they died. In fact, the only thing missing from the area was a cemetery.