Surviving in the Highlands

THE STORY OF A CHALLENGE

The story of a challenge 

Surviving and putting down roots in the mountains.  A difficult environment, always uphill or downhill, with scant resources, only wood and water. Two vital elements, to be used with care. 

This has meant that over the centuries the populations of Trentino have organised into communities capable of self-regulation, with legal instruments that could regulate all aspects of daily life. Here the rules were created to safeguard the balance between environment, available resources and their use.  

An extremely current topic. That’s why the METS is a place to learn about the future. 

Zero-kilometre objects

Zero-kilometre objects 

The METS houses over eight thousand objects, thanks to the tireless work of its creator, the ethnographer Giuseppe Šebesta, protagonist of epic enterprises to safeguard knowledge and memories. One above all? When he took apart an entire mill, piece by piece, and then rented a tractor to transport it to the museum and patiently reassemble it. To this day, the mill is one of the museum’s highlights.  

From a huge windmill to a safety pin just a few centimetres in size, at the METS you will find small and large tools of everyday life. All zero-kilometre objects.  

That is, made with the raw materials that the territory made available, especially wood and iron, and by leveraging what for centuries, and until the 1960s, was the only driving force available: the thrust of water.  

What to see at the METS

Objects that tell stories 

Every object you see at the METS tells a story. Some are very particular, such as the whetstone holders. Namely, wooden or horn cases, sometimes simple, sometimes richly decorated, used to store the whetstone, which was sed to sharpen the sickle. 

Other objects, however, are truly curious. One among all? The horn that scares away bears. An object unique in its own way. These are hollow wooden statues created to house beehives to be protected from bears or other wild animals. The statues, of anthropomorphic shape, were sculpted in such a way that the buzzing of the bees inside them generated a deep sound that frightened predators. Very few examples exist because, at the end of the season, the statues were destroyed to harvest the honey.  

There are three things, however, that you absolutely must not miss when visiting the METS. 

The first is the agriculture room, which tells the essential life of Trentino, a land where agriculture develops in height, stealing every centimetre from the mountain. Here, you can admire a collection of ploughs, a simple tool that has played a fundamental role in the history of humanity. 

Then there are the big water machines. The mill, the sawmill, the hammer and the noria.  You will hardly have the chance to see it in a museum, given its size. This instrument is widespread in the Alpine region, as well as in Asia Minor and in South America. It is a typical example of popular technology that demonstrates how man, at any latitude, has found the same solutions to solve the same problem.  

The third is the reconstruction, inside the museum, of some rooms of a peasant house, such as the bedroom and the stüa. If the bedroom was the place of rest, a sacred moment for those who led a life of physical toil, the stüa was the part of the house used for socialising, as it housed the main source of heat for the home.  

This room also tells a story. The story of the difficult coexistence with the cold, with short days and unsafe jobs. It is the story of a time gone by, when wandering into the forest to collect the wood needed to heat the house was an act of faith.  

What to Do at the METS 

Stories to Share: What to Do at the METS 

The METS tells its story through the objects it exhibits, but what makes it a living museum are the many initiatives it implements to involve the public.  

First, there are the educational and training itineraries. There are about fifty of them, designed for different age groups, from six-year-old children to high school students. The itineraries are constantly updated and improved, and, in many cases, refer to the temporary exhibitions set up in the museum. 

Indeed, the exhibitions are another of the museum’s strengths. They are housed in different rooms, so that the objects on display can interact with the museum’s permanent collection, creating unusual connections. 

Until 31 May, 2025, the museum hosts the exhibition “Selvatico sarai tu”. Starting from the mythological figure of the wild man, the exhibition addresses the relationship between the wild world and the domesticated world. 

Among the most successful initiatives are the workshops and training courses for adults, which combine theory and hands-on experience. For example, lectures on medicinal plants, with workshops where participants can make ointments with their own hands by mixing raw and active ingredients.  

Or, reviews such as Discanto, on popular music from Trentino, or timBallo, with a focus on popular dances. These initiatives involve a broad public, showcasing the museum’s immense intangible heritage. 

Dioramas and audio guides 

Dioramas and audio guides 

In addition to educational tours, exhibitions and workshops, the METS relies on several interactive tools to share its heritage with the public. 

Among these, by 2025 the Museum should complete the creation of audio guides that are accessible from smartphones, also giving visitors the possibility of building a personalised online museum itinerary from home. 

In this way, when visitors arrive at the METS they already know what to see and, thanks to the help of the audio guides, can independently manage their visit experience. 

It is a nice innovation, which joins more classic storytelling methods, such as dioramas that tell the story of how tools of peasant technology like mills and sawmills worked, or reconstructions of situations and environments from the past.