Antico Frantoio e Vecchia Falegnameria

The Antico Frantoio and Vecchia Falegnameria preserve two forms of traditional work in the Maremma: an olive mill with its original machinery and a carpenter’s workshop kept with its tools and benches.

Why it matters

The Antico Frantoio operated from the late eighteenth century until after the Second World War. Its equipment was not modernised; the wooden cogwheel, granite millstone and oak screw press remain. Restored in 1990, the mill later became part of Massa Marittima’s civic museum system. The Vecchia Falegnameria preserves a workshop acquired by the municipality when its last carpenter retired in 1990.

What to notice

At the mill, the production sequence is still visible: animal power turned the wooden wheel and granite millstones; olive paste was placed in braided-straw bags called bruscole and stacked beneath the oak strettoio press. The carpentry collection includes planes, saws, lathes and early powered machines. These came from the workshop at Gerfalco near Montieri, where generations of the Forgeschi family worked from the late nineteenth century until 1990.

Context and history

The two venues form part of Massa Marittima’s civic museum system, which preserves the history of local trades. The mill reopened after restoration and a period of closure on 25 March 2023. The municipality acquired the Gerfalco workshop with its contents and installed it in a former warehouse behind the Palazzo Comunale, in vicolo Massaini. Together, the collections document olive processing and woodworking in the Colline Metallifere.