Recently, I had an opportunity to visit the museum and to talk to Alessandro Sella, the president of Schio’s GMA. (The image below shows the museum entrance - you can click on all the images for a bigger view)
This first part of my blogpost is about my talk with Alessandro. A second part of this post will focus on some of the exhibits from the museum. Finally, there should be a third part, focusing on the contributions of Pietro Maraschin, a 18th century geologist from Schio.
Let me start this post with a brief history of the building which hosts the museum.
Cella Military Barracks: Brief History
These barracks were built in the second half of nineteenth century and functioned till the end of second world war. In September 1943, when Italy asked for armistice, it was hosting the 57th Infantry Regiment. It was attacked and occupied by the German soldiers, who used it for their troops as well as a prison for the partisans.In 1945, when Germany lost the war, on 29th April, the German troops stationed in Alto Vicentino gathered in its courtyard and left for Austria through the Fugazze pass on the Pasubio mountains.
The old barracks were bought by the municipality of Schio and the old stables were renovated. These now hold the Geo-Mineralogical museum as well as the offices of Association IV November, involved in historical research, especially about the first world war.
Pietro Maraschin Exhibition
Though I knew that there was this GM museum in Schio, I had never been to it.I learned about it in an exhibition on Pietro Maraschin organised by the museum in collaboration with local schools. He was an amateur geologist known for his mineralogical studies in Schio. That exhibition was an opportunity to know more about some of the local toponyms and their links with geology and history. It was also an opportunity to see some of the exhibits from the GM museum.
The image below shows the inauguration of this exhibition (click for a bigger view). Thus, I decided to visit the museum and asked Alessandro for an interview.
Talking to Alessandro Sella, President of the GM Museum
Q: Alessandro, how did you develop an interest in geology and mineralogy?
Alessandro: I was always passionate about natural sciences, I loved studying them at high school and university levels. I never lost that passion and thus even if I work in another area (as a product quality manager), I continue to be active in this area in my free time. I deeply love Schio and its surroundings, I was born here. (Alessandro Sella, left)
Ever since I was a child, I was very curious about places like the Pasubio Valley and the little Dolomite mountains. I wanted to know why a rock was dark and another was white, how were they formed, why do certain plants grow only in one area and not in another, why some animals live here and not others, and so on. About ten years ago, I became associated with the GM museum and I am its president for the last 6-7 years. My aim is that our little museum should remain alive and active. It is a private museum, maintained by the work of all the volunteers of our association called MUSA and the GM group of Schio. I feel that this museum is important because it narrates the natural and geological history of this area.
This area known as Recoarese (area around Schio which covers Recoaro, Pasubio & Leogra Valley, Astico valley up to Posina and Laghi), is important because it is the southern most part of the Alps which have an outcropping of crystalline basement, which is a metamorphic formation, more than 300 million years old, on which different geological layers are located. Our museum exhibits showcase this big local geological and mineralogical diversity. At the same time, we have a lot of geological and mineralogical samples from other parts of the world, all the continents are represented here.
Q: Ancient humans have a long history mineralogical knowledge and discoveries. How was the situation in this part of the world?
Alessandro: In the Leogra valley, the area known as Valle dei Mercanti (Merchants’ valley), has traces of human occupation from the copper-age. They were using this metal because the rocks in that area have copper.
More recently, during the reign of the Venice republic (Serenissima) this area was known as a metal-district for the extraction of zinc, lead, copper, iron and even silver. For example in the Tretto area of Schio, around the area of the St. Patrick’s well (Pozzo di San Patrizio), there used to be extraction of silver, used for minting money. As the stores of silver were exhausted, the mines were abandoned.
From 1000 CE till medieval periods, groups of persons from Tyrol and lower-Bavaria regions, were invited by the local Bishops, to come and settle in the Leogra valley, as they had the necessary skills for fine wood work as well as for mining. These Germanic groups were called Cimbrians (Cimbri), literally, ‘good carpenters’. Many locations and family names of this area carry the traces of this immigration even today.
Then around the end of 18th century till the end of the second world, there was a new phase of mineral extraction in this area.
Finally, an important extraction was of Caolino, a special clay formed from alteration of volcanic rocks formed from ancient volcanic eruptions, in this area, which was used for a different kind of industrial development. It was linked with production of porcelain, ceramics and paper-industry, which were active till early 1980s.
Q: Tell us about the origins of this museum.
Alessandro: Schio’s mineralogical group was formed in 1973 by persons like Prof. Luciano de Zen, Girolamo Zamperetti, and many other friends. They were all passionate about geology and mineralogy. The group changed different locations along the years and started putting together some exhibit boxes to showcase their first collections of the materials made during their walks and excursions in the area. In the year 2000, the group was given some space in the basement of the old primary school building in Magre, where the first exposition-room was started.
The present location in the old Cella barracks was inaugurated in 2013, and it is no longer just an exposition room, it is a proper museum.
Q: Earlier you spoke about the valley of merchants in Pieve. It also has Monti d’oro (Gold mountains). Did they really find gold there?
Alessandro: That is just a legend. It was an important area for different metals, as I have explained, starting with copper and iron. There are stories about finding gold there, but they are just stories. In more recent times, there was an article about finding a rock containing an iron-mineral, where they have found traces of gold, but it did not have any gold deposits.
Q: The area around Arsiero called Laghi is called Val di Ferro (Iron valley), did they have iron in that area?
Alessandro: If you go towards Valdastico, there is a place called Fusine, on the banks of the Astico river, where they did have smelting of iron (from the verb ‘fucinare’) found in that area, and used the water-energy of Astico river for this purpose. We have also found signs of Ematite (iron mineral) extracted in Valle dei Mercanti, which was taken to Fusine for smelting of iron.
Q: Tell me about the different collections in this museum.
Alessandro: The mineralogical collectors can collect materials from different parts of the world or they may limit themselves to some specific geographical areas, such as our 
collection of the minerals of Alto Vicentino. Some collectors focus on some specific kinds of minerals, for example, there are persons who collect only Agate stone, known for its colour bands. Personally I am interested in the geological aspects and minerals of our own geographical area.
Among the collections of our museum is that of Alessandro de Grandis, one of the founders of this museum, that is given on loan to us by his son Ugo.
There have been many donations as well, including one from Mrs. dalla Fina, who was a traveller, geologist and speleologist with geological and mineralogical samples from different parts of the world. She left all her writings and materials to the museum in her testament.
These persons leave their collections not just to us in the association and to the museum, but to all the population.
Alessandro: Each mineral has a geometrical aspect, which is about how that mineral is built. Another is the aspect about its chemical composition.
When I talk to children about it, I explain that we can look at the ingredients of a mineral and then, we also need to look at the dress or the form those ingredients take which determines what kind of mineral it is going to create.
Knowing both, the form and the composition, of these is fundamental for classifying the different minerals. Every mineral must have a name, a family name and the location where it is found, for its scientific and naturalistic value, which can be very different from its economic value.
Q: If you are shown a piece of rock, looking at its colours and form, can you tell its composition?
Alessandro: Generally speaking yes, eventually with the help of some of our members. We have these stereo-microscopes here for looking at the rocks under the microscope. We also have different volumes of books about geology and mineralogy. With the help of these, we can identify them by looking at their crystals, their colours, hardness, etc. and classify them.
Bigger laboratories can do spectre-photometric tests to analyse the spectrum of different minerals in a sample.
Q: We can now create molecules of different chemicals, such as those used as medicines, in the laboratory. Can we do similar creation of natural elements? For example, can we create iron in the laboratory?
Alessandro: It is a difficult question. I am not conversant with some of the new technologies like Nanotech, but I don’t think that we can create elements. For example, thinking of all the ‘rare earths’ elements used for technology such as microchips, whose mining is much in the news and is associated with difficult international situations, because we can’t just create them. For the time, we need to focus on recycling and reuse.
Conclusions
Thanks to Alessandro for sharing his knowledge and being patient in answering my questions.The second part of this post will look at some of the interesting exhibits from Schio's GM Museum.
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