More than 150 “Museimpresa” museums in Italy preserve and enhance its heritage for the public

The national “Museimpresa” network, founded in Milan in 2001 by Assolombarda and Confindustria, brings together more than 150 museums and archives of Italian companies, to preserve and enhance their industrial and cultural heritage, and make it available to the population. There is a new addition to the network, the “Piero and Salvatore Leone de Castris” museum of the Leone de Castris winery, a benchmark for Salento winemaking and a historic Made in Italy brand. The “identity” museum preserves rare bottles of wine, antique machinery, tools, memorabilia, objects, and precious documents from the past, telling not only the story of the company and its leaders, but also the history of the region and the excellent wines of Salento. The “Museimpresa” association also includes other wineries, such as: the Ricci Curbastro Agricultural and Wine Museum, a Franciacorta brand; the Trento Ferrari wineries, a leading Trentodoc producer run by the Lunelli family, and the Chiarli Historical Archive, a leading Lambrusco brand. Some of the iconic Made in Italy brands are in the agri-food sector, are the Giorgio Amarelli Licorice Museum, the Amaro Lucano Museum, the Barilla Historical Archive, the Peroni Beer Historical Archive and Museum, the Branca Collection, the Campari Gallery, the Dersut Coffee Museum, the Gruppo Cimbali Coffee Machine Museum, the private museum of the Gragnano Pasta Factory, the Lavazza Museum, the Giovanni Mucci Confetti Museum, the Vito Forte Bread Museum, the Strega Space, the Urbani Truffle Museum, and the Food Museums of Parma, to name just a few.
The mission of the “Museimpresa” association is to promote corporate cultural policy by enhancing corporate archives and museums and spreading quality standards; to give visibility in a systemic perspective to the diverse phenomena of corporate museums and archives, which are the history of Italian production and entrepreneurship. Further, to promote exchanging and spreading knowledge and experiences among the museum community, businesses, cultural institutions, and the general public. Also to conduct research, training, development, and in depth studies in the field of museology and corporate archives, as well as increase relationships and interactions between businesses and archives operating nationally and internationally in the view of jointly valorizing projects. And, to encourage various institutional players to invest in corporate culture so as to prevent losing important entrepreneurial assets.
The “Piero and Salvatore Leone de Castris” museum, which opened in 2009 in Salice Salentino, is dedicated to Piero and Salvatore Leone de Castris. They were far-sighted 20th-century entrepreneurs, pioneers in quality production decisions that proved successful over time. “We created our museum”, Piernicola Leone De Castris, explained, “to offer testimony not only to the work carried out by the company over time as well as the various phases that marked its development, but also to tell about the commitment and sacrifices of the local winemakers to consistently achieve and guarantee the highest quality. Our primary aim is gaining prominent positions in the wine world, and consequently spreading knowledge of our area’s excellent production on the various Italian and international markets. The museum represents a gift to the territory, a heritage for everyone”. The museum, occupies approximately 1.000 square meters of space and is located on the upper floor of the company building. This is where an old “traìno” ( a horse-drawn cart), two carriages, bottling systems, presses, pumps and corking machines are kept. The wall display cases contain bottles of “Moscatello” from 1925, “Five Roses” from 1943 (the first rosé bottled in Italy), “Negrino” from 1948 and “Salice” from 1954. One can also admire photos from the era, as well as valuable original historical documents: for instance, the nomination of Arcangelo De Castris to senator of the Kingdom (1890).