Museums
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- Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 February 2024 16:55
- Published on Thursday, 23 May 2013 14:30
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MUSEUM OF PALAEONTOLOGY AND NATURAL SCIENCES OF ASPROMONTE
From a geological point of view, the town of Bova stands on a 900-metre-high pre-Aspromonte relief that dominates a morphologically tormented and geologically interesting territory. The most striking aspects are given by geolitological and stratigraphic formations spanning a large span of time. The deposits consist of sandstones, calcarenites, sandy clays and marls resting on a core of crystalline-metamorphic rocks. Some formations are very rich in planktonic and benthic foraminiferal microfossils, attesting to deep, open sea conditions. Another interesting aspect is the lithology, whose mineralogical components denote tectonic events to which the area has been subjected over millions of years. In this context, the Museum of Palaeontology and Natural Sciences of the Aspromonte Park, which is housed in the premises of the old magistrate's court in Bova and was established in the mid-1980s, finds its rightful place. Inside, there are several rooms in which an ideal journey back in time is explained. It contains mainly artefacts from Calabria and Reggio Calabria in particular, although for didactic completeness specimens from various regions of the world such as North Africa and Northern Europe are also on display.
Of particular importance is a fragment of a dwarf deer jawbone found in Reggio Calabria, evidence of the insularity of this part of Italy. The museum intends to emphasise these aspects of naturalistic importance and wants to offer young people concrete examples of reality unfiltered by the interpretations of others. Each visitor will thus be able to personally grasp those impressions that have impressed him or her most. The jewel in the Museum's crown is the Museum Educational Laboratory for children and schools 'A paleontologist's day at the Museum of Palaeontology in Bova'. The use of the Laboratory and the Museum must be arranged with the Municipality of Bova tel 0965 762013 and email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
MUSEUM OF THE GREEK CALABRA LANGUAGE "Gerhard Rohlfs" www.museogerhardrohlfs.it
The Museum of the Greek Calabrian Language 'Gerhard Rohlfs' is located in the historical centre of Bova, one of the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy, which has been awarded the Orange Flag by the Italian Touring Club. The museum structure was inaugurated on 21 May 2016, thanks to the cooperation between the Aspromonte National Park and the public territorial bodies responsible for the valorisation and protection of the cultural heritage of the historical-linguistic minority of the Greeks of Calabria. It is located at the entrance to the village, in a particularly symbolic place, as it represents the exact spot where the traveller Edward Lear drew a beautiful view of Bova during his wanderings in Calabria in the mid-19th century.
Visiting the museum means having an opportunity for direct acquaintance with the Greek-Calabrian language, its history and its peculiarities, through exhibition panels that trace a cultural itinerary with the linguistic theses formulated by Gerhard Rohlfs who, as early as 1924, sustained the Magna-Greek origin of the language that still lives on in the Hellenophone villages of Bova, Gallicianò and Roghudi, Roccaforte del Greco on the most inaccessible slopes of southern Aspromonte.
The museum consists of six rooms, each dedicated to famous scholars who have been interested in the intangible heritage of the Greeks of Calabria. Inside, it is possible to delve into various aspects of the Greek language of Calabria, explained both through photos and historical documents, and through audio-visual installations that allow visitors to listen to and understand this ancestral language, dating back to the time of Homer, as well as the exhibition of ethnographic artefacts, which belonged to Gerhard Rohlfs himself and were donated by his son Eckart.
Through the exhibition layout, it is possible to retrace the vicissitudes of the German linguist, to learn about some archaic terms of the Greek-Calabrian language, and the scholar's hypotheses that stirred the sensibilities of the Italian linguists of the time, as they dismantled the regime's nationalist vision, highlighting how ancient Rome had not been able to Latinise the entire Italic peninsula.
Another part of the museum is dedicated to Franco Mosino, the Reggio Calabria philosopher, Greek scholar and intellectual who was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013, thanks to his thesis on the author of the epic poem known as the Odyssey; Here it is possible to investigate, through current archaeological and palaeographical data and reconstructions of historical settings, the course of the Greek-Calabrian language, its transformations by virtue of the contribution of Byzantine culture and later the influences exerted by the repeated foreign dominations that followed one after the other in the Aspromontane lands of the Greeks of Calabria. To be sure of the timetable and to arrange educational visits call the Municipality of Bova tel 0965.762013
PATH OF RURAL CIVILISATION www.sentierociviltacontadina.it
is an open-air museum in the municipality of Bova, capital of the Grecanica area of Calabria, conceived and realised by Saverio Micheletta.
It is a path that winds its way through the alleys of the ancient village where the main working tools of peasant culture have been installed: water and animal-powered millstones, oil presses and presses, troughs for animals, wine presses for crushing grapes, presses for extracting bergamot essence, and many other objects belonging to the ancient farming civilisation.
