History of the Museum

The Museo dell’Arpa Victor Salvi

The Museo dell’Arpa Victor Salvi, located in Piasco, at the entrance of the Valle Varaita, in the land that once was of the Ancient Marquisate of Saluzzo in the province of Cuneo, was inaugurated with the opening to the public on 28 January 2006 and is managed by the Associazione Museo dell’Arpa Victor Salvi.

It’s the first and only museum in the world entirely dedicated to the harp, its history and sound universe, in a multipurpose facility that includes an exhibition area, an auditorium, the entrance with the ticket office and the Museum Shop, the Museum’s selling area.

The Museum, founded to host a rotating collection of over 110 antique harps, inspired by Victor Salvi, is now a reference on an international scale, not only for harpists, but also for art enthusiasts. This is also due to the exhibitions of recent years, concert programs and musical festivals, seminars, visits and educational workshops for all schools and individuals, created to promote the culture of the harp and its sound universe.

The Museum, promoted by Salvi Harps N.S.M. S.p.A, by the Victor Salvi Foundation and by the Comunità Montana Valle Varaita, now Comunità Montana Valli del Monviso, is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, by the Regione Piemonte Direzione Industria-Turismo–Economia Montana, by G.A.L. (Tradizione delle Terre Occitane) and by Salvi Harps.
The Museum was inaugurated on 3 December 2005 and was inaugurated and opened to the public on 28 January 2006.

The Project of the Museo dell’Arpa

The Museo dell’Arpa Victor Salvi is an exquisite treasure trove, over the Salvi factory, an industrial building and former Wild cotton mill, dating back to the XIX century. You enter the Museum by a large spiral staircase, suspended form metal ropes, which bring harp strings and the sinuous shape of the instrument to mind.

The building was designed by architect Dario Castellino as a soundboard, covered in wood on the inside and metal on the outside, an abstract place, deliberately detached from reality. Outside, the reflective walls come loose from the heat of the exposed brickwork in the ancient building below, but bind to the fake structures of the silos and tanks of the industrial area.

Inside the surfaces are homogeneous and linear, with wooden walls, floor and ceiling and floor to ceiling windows. The space is divided by an in and out game, with large openings of the roof towards the sky and a large window that provides a view along the slopes of the valley woods.

As soon as you enter you are greeted by the ticket office and the Museum Shop, with lots of curious objects, dedicated to the harp, the catalogue of the previous exhibition and the current one in progress “The Evolution of the Harp – the origins, Sébastien Erard, Victor Salvi”. An opportunity not to be missed at the end of the visit, to take a souvenir or special gift with you of the Museo dell’Arpa Victor Salvi.
To the right you enter the auditorium and the toilets, while the exhibition room opens on the left.