Museo del Bijou

Unique in Italy, the Bijou Museum preserves and enhances the jewellery objects produced by local industries between the end of the 19th century and 1970. Set up by the Municipality of Casalmaggiore in 1986, it is housed in the basement of the former college of Santa Croce, built by the Barnabite Fathers in the 18th century: vaulted ceilings, terracotta floors and exposed stone walls provide an evocative setting for the exhibition rooms. Here you can admire necklaces, bracelets, rings, brooches, earrings, pendants, buckles, as well as badges, devotional medals, belts, glasses: more than 20 thousand pieces of ornaments and accessories, which constituted the sample collections of the Casalmaggiore factories and now illustrate a century of costume and fashion history, from the Victorian era to the hippies. In the corridors, along with the bijoux, there are also machine tools, photographs and period catalogues; a workshop is also available for educational and creative activities, aimed at students, families, groups and differently abled people (booking is required, as are guided tour requests).
The museum has a large exhibition hall, where exhibitions and lectures on contemporary bijoux production, individual artists or historical brands of Italian bijoux production are hosted.