Ethnographic Museum Alfredo Majorano

The Ethnographic Museum "Alfredo Majorano" is located in the old town of Taranto, in the cathedral in the ancient palace Galeota. In the museum there are several examples of the popular traditions of the city of Taranto and its province, collected by the researcher Alfredo Majorano (1902-1984) and his wife Elena Spinelli. Much of the material was donated by the scholar to the City of Taranto in 1978 and then by his widow in recent years. The opening of the present location, after various difficulties, dates back to March 2003. Museum collects important documentation of intangible cultural heritage, such as recordings of pizzica made ​​by Majorano in the fifties and other evidence on the phenomenon of tarantism, designed by the ethnologist Ernesto de Martino. The museum is directed by Mario Alberto Cirese (1921), one of the most important scholars of Italian folk traditions of the second half of the 20th century.