Venostano Museum
The millenary history of everyday life
Situated in a 16th century building, Venostano Museum houses two permanent exhibits: "Wasserwosser", focusing on the theme of water, and "Val Venosta Arcaica" (Archaic Val Venosta).
Because of poor rainfall, Val Venosta is one of the driest valleys of the Alps. Its inhabitants had therefore to devise something to solve the problem of water supply, and they invented the so-called "Waale", a thick network of irrigation channels documented already in the 12th century. In 1939, there were 235 main channels for a total length of 600 kilometers. The exhibit illustrates how water used to influence every aspect of the local life, from the language to the everyday life rhythms, to the rites.
The lower floor of the museum houses an exhibit dedicated to the finds coming from the local archaeological sites, in particular from Ganglegg settlement: this settlement dates back to the Iron Age and lies on the mountain slope dominating Sluderno.
Venostano Museum is the departure point of a ring-route crossing Ganglegg and continuing along the channels "Leitenwaal" and "Bergwaal", where it is possible to see the irrigation systems observed in the museum halls.
One of the most important archaeological finds of Val Venosta is preserved in Santa Maria in Colle Church in Laces, where it was found in 1992. It is a Menhir, a white marble slab dating back to 5,000 years ago, whose inscriptions witness, among the other things, the millenary link between Val Venosta and Valtellina.
