Castelfidardo international accordion museum of Castelfidardo, Ethnographic museum in Palazzo Municipale, Castelfidardo, Italy.
The International Accordion Museum of Castelfidardo occupies vaulted rooms of rough pale stone, with a smooth reddish-brown floor. A central glass case holds open books and printed material, flanked by glass-fronted cabinets along the walls. Since the 2020 restoration the collection is arranged in seven thematic rooms, showing about 130 of its 500 pieces at a time.
Accordion production started here in the early 1860s when Paolo Soprani opened the first Italian factory. The town rapidly became a center of manufacturing with dozens of workshops that built the region's reputation.
The museum's seven rooms are named for figures and themes of accordion culture, among them Gervasio Marcosignori, Paolo Soprani and Astor Piazzolla. Castelfidardo's instrument-making tradition began with Paolo Soprani, who in 1863 took apart an accordion given by an Austrian pilgrim at the Sanctuary of Loreto and rebuilt his own version.
The museum is arranged in seven thematic rooms, with about 130 of the 500 pieces on display at any time, rotated over time. Seven video guides present the collection, available in Italian Sign Language with English subtitles and music; three panels can be read via smartphone and three audio files are offered in MP3 or WAV.
Among the instruments on show is a rare Chinese sheng, a free-reed mouth organ that predates the accordion, alongside an 1856 Harmoniflûte. The museum also holds a faithful reconstruction of an early 20th-century accordion workshop, where visitors can see the craftsman's bench and tools.
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