Museo della Civilta Contadina di Puglia e Basilicata (DUMEST)

The Museum of Peasant Civilization of Puglia and Basilicata, known as DUMEST, preserves a private collection assembled by Dr. Vito Santoiemma. Its agricultural tools, workshop implements, household objects and funeral carriages document rural trades and daily life across the two regions.

Why it matters

Santoiemma began with tools from his own family's activities and spent decades gathering and restoring objects whose working contexts were disappearing. The collection offers a record of rural crafts in wood, iron and stone, kept together in Gioia del Colle. Its project is to transmit the arts and trades of peasant civilisation in Puglia and Basilicata.

What to notice

The agricultural section includes wooden and iron ploughs, seeders, mowing machines and stone troughs. The milling section gathers hand querns, pestles, sieves and cereal-cleaning machines. Among the collection's distinctive objects are a reconstructed noria, a water-lifting wheel with a papier-mâché mule illustrating its operation, and two restored funeral carriages, one for adults and one for children. Other rooms hold tools of traditional trades, carts, ice boxes, early cinema and photography equipment, and a survival box and writing desk from the First World War.

Context and history

The museum's organisation reflects its collector's biography: Santoiemma built the collection gradually, beginning with family tools and expanding it through decades of research and restoration. Its displays bring together objects from farming, mills, workshops, domestic life and funerary practice. A Telenorba feature filmed in the museum in December 2023 and broadcast in 2024 introduced the collection to a wider audience.