Museo delle arti in ghisa nella Maremma, Ethnographic museum in Follonica, Italy.
The Museum of Arts in Cast Iron is housed in a restored building within the former Ilva foundries complex and presents exhibits about metalworking and industrial heritage. The collection includes cast iron artworks, historical tools, and production models that document the crafting process.
The museum was founded in 1998 and received its official opening in 2013, marking the transformation of an industrial site into a cultural venue. This conversion shows how a dormant factory was revived to preserve the city's industrial past.
The first-floor rooms are devoted to the Scuola di ornato e disegno lineare, an art academy founded by Grand Duke Leopold II to turn the foundries into artistic workshops. On display are the wooden models used to press shapes into casting sand, including a Gothic ornament of 1838 from the foundries' clock tower, and a historic workbench with tools donated by the Franchi Giuggioli family, Franco Santini and Reno Radi.
Access is through the restored foundry building, which is clearly marked and reachable from the city center. The interior is well organized with ample space to walk around and explore the exhibits.
The upper floor holds the altoforno space, where a cascade of metal slats marks the spot of the old melting furnace and chimney: red slats at the bottom for ignition, metal ones in the middle for the ore charged with coal, transparent ones above for the smoke. A multimedia projection on the walls follows the casting, ending with views of Follonica by photographers Maurizio Martinozzi and Antonio Presta.
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