Museum of Olive and Olive Oil – Lungarotti Foundation

The Museum

Museo dell' Olivo e dell' Olio - Fondazione Lungarotti

The Museum of Olive and Olive Oil was established in 2000 by the Lungarotti Foundation as part of their Museum of Wine, which opened to the public in 1974.
Its premises are a small nucleus of Medieval residences, where, many decades ago, an olive-pressing installation operated intra muros at Torgiano. The museum is organized in 10 rooms and the tour starts with information on the phytological characteristics of the olive, on the most widespread varieties in Umbria, on the various methods for olive cultivation and olive oil extraction, from the traditional to the most pioneering. The presence of the olive and olive oil in daily life, and their use and importance throughout the centuries are presented in a series of exhibition units. These units examine the mythological origin of the plant and the use of olive oil for lighting, in rituals of major western monotheistic religious, in medicine and in the diet, in sports, in cosmetics, for heating and as an important element of popular imagination, which attributed to the tree and its product symbolic, appeasing, deterrent and therapeutic qualities, some of which are still vital in part.

Important exhibits
Attic alabastron by the Foundry Painter (5th century BC)
Three-wick oil lamp of Daedalic art (7th century BC)·
Formal oil lamp of silver and blown glass (Liguria, 18th century)·
Hydraulic olive-press (Umbria, 17th-18th century)