Museo della Bonifica - Idrovora di Saiarino

Saiarino is a 1925 pumping station built for the land-reclamation system of the lower Bolognese plain. Its machinery and architectural decoration form the centre of a museum devoted to the engineering and labour that transformed the surrounding wetlands.

Why it matters

The station is part of the bonifica di destra Reno, the drainage system that manages water between the Reno and Sillaro rivers. Six cast-iron pumps lift water from the Lorgana canal, while the building preserves the industrial architecture of the early twentieth century. Saiarino joins technical history with the human story of reclamation work.

What to notice

The pump hall retains its Liberty-style decoration, including geometric friezes, iron balustrades and lamps. The former thermoelectric power station, turbine and alternator document how the plant once generated its own electricity. A room of historic circuit breakers preserves the control systems, while a limnigraph continues to record water levels. Museum displays also recall Pietro Pasini, the scariolanti who dug drainage channels by hand, and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war put to work on the reclamation schemes.

Context and history

Saiarino was inaugurated in 1925 by King Vittorio Emanuele III. Its pumps became a central part of the drainage system that lowered water levels across the plain and enabled the reclamation of farmland. The pumping station remains part of the managed water network and is one of three sites in the Ecomuseo delle Valli di Argenta, which interprets the region's relationship with water, marshes and agricultural transformation.