Storia della Mezzadria Sergio Anselmi Museum

The extraordinary Municipal Museum of the History of Mezzadria “Sergio Anselmi” has been located since 1978, in the fascinating complex of Santa Maria delle Grazie, immersed in the greenery of the Senigallia hills. The museum, with its two thousand objects on display, is an indispensable point of reference for anyone who wants to learn about daily life and work in the Marche countryside in the first half of the twentieth century.

The evocative Renaissance cloister in one wing of the former Convent of the Grazie is the first impact of the Municipal Museum of the History of Mezzadria “Sergio Anselmi”, later organized into thirty themed rooms that retrace the stages of peasant life: olive presses, grain sorting machines, repair tools, a kitchen, looms, hemp, and, in the basement, a large cellar.

On the first floor, the genius and hard work of the peasants in the variety of their working tools is even better captured. Here, with well-structured itineraries, the objects document the major themes of peasant work: wheat, wine, corn, beetroot, and everyday life, all accompanied by beautiful historical photographs by Mario Giacomelli and Mario Carafòli. The rigor and passion in the distribution of themes and objects, behind which the presence of man is always felt, mean that the Museum materializes in its many facets a long story that has marked the history of the Marche region: sharecropping. A history marked by the daily master-peasant relationship, common to regions such as the Marche with a prevalent sharecropping organization of farms since the 14th-15th centuries.

The Mezzadria Museum offers meetings aimed at exploring popular culture topics with the participation of experts in ancient crafts, farmers, museum guides, and experts in popular traditions.

The Museum of the History of Mezzadria “Sergio Anselmi” also offers “Men and Landscapes”, a series of summer events, which began in 2005 with the aim of raising awareness and deepening, with historians and experts in sectors linked to the territory, the history of the Marche region, with a primary focus on the rural environment, which has marked its distinctive features more than any other, and on the Adriatic Sea, natural reference point in the history of the city of Senigallia.

For the 2025 summer events dedicated to “Men and Landscapes” click here