Il Filo che unisce: dalla dote contadina al deposito museale (The thread that unites: from peasant dowry to museum collection)

On Saturday, 7 March 2026, at 3:30 p.m., the Museum of Rural Life in Bentivoglio (BO) is preparing to celebrate International Women's Rights Day with a special opening of its textile repository.

The event is part of a series of initiatives promoted by Depositi e patrimoni in rete, a network for the management and enhancement of archives, funded by the Emilia-Romagna Region. This will be the first opportunity to visit the Museum's renovated textile archive accompanied by curator Marianna Biondi.

In the past, in peasant homes, the dowry was much more than a trousseau: it was the bride's heritage, a silent narrative made up of fabrics, embroidery and gestures handed down through the generations. Every sheet, every tablecloth, every handmade garment told a story of care, identity and skill passed down through the generations.

The Museum's storerooms house a precious textile heritage, bearing witness to the daily life and material culture of the past. This heritage is passed on and preserved as a collective legacy.

With the special opening of the textile repository, we invite you to discover the thread that links yesterday's dowry to today's preservation. A unique opportunity to get closer to forgotten weaves, to gestures of care that testify to the ability to perform all stages of processing from spinning to weaving to embroidery, and which continue to live on thanks to the preservation of this heritage.