The Permanent Exhibition

VISIT the PERMANENT EXHIBITION
of Italian and Foreign BAGPIPES

one of its kind in Europe since 1991

Cartolina_Interno_Mostra

open every day except Monday
10am to 1pm – 4pm to 7pm

Color catalog of the instruments on exhibition – CD – DVD and other publications of the Circolo della Zampogna

On request, guided tours and meetings with players and makers

For info:
mobile: +39 333 362 8759
e-mail: circolo@zampogna.org
web-site: www.zampogna.org


The Permanent Exhibition

At the end of 1991(December, the 14th ), the Cultural Association “Circolo della Zampogna” (Bagipes Club) instituted, at its headquarters in Scapoli, a Permanent Exhibition of Italian and foreign Bagpipes, with the main objective to create in the small village of Scapoli, at the foot of Molise Mainarde mountains, a center of documentation, safeguarding and enhancement of the ancient bag instrument .

The initiative also aimed to awaken the interest of the local community, and especially the younger generation, towards a cultural heritage that had been increasingly relegated to an use almost exclusively during Christmas period.

But there was even more:

  • on the one hand, the intention of realizing a tourist attraction point for the visitors who came in the area which in the year 1990 had been included in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park;
  • on the other hand, the will as for the Circolo to start giving substance to the idea of the project “Living with the bagpipe,” presented in the Programme of the European ‘Community Initiative “LEADER II”: namely, not only safeguarding of the zampogna as the significant element of the local culture, but also its use as a factor of possible and sustainable development of the entire area, rural and mountainous, such as that in which Scapoli is situated.

From the point of view of a great openness and exchange with the other countries which have similar tradition, the exhibition exposes not only local instruments but also numerous bagpipes coming from other European and Mediterranean basin countries.

Initially, the exhibition possessed twenty instruments, all belonging to the collection of Mr. Mauro Gioielli, who had collected them over years of researches and studies on the bagpipes in Italy and abroad.

In subsequent years, the number of instruments has been going gradually increasing until to reach the current level of about 120 pieces, some of which are made ?available from the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park and the remaining (now all owned by the Association) donated by members and sympathizers or bought by the Circolo over the years.

Besides bagpipes, the Exhibition shows other instruments connected with the use of the bagpipes in the respective places of origin (various kinds of flutes, oboes and percussions).

Since July 2000, the Exhibition found place at the seat of the Italian Center of the Bagpipe and was divided into two sections: the first, dedicated to Molise bagpipes and other Italian bag instruments; the second, dedicated to the European and non-European bagpipes.

Since June 2010, both the Exhibition and the Center were moved back at the headquarter of the Association, in Martiri di Scapoli Square.