MEV - Museo dell'Emigrazione Veneta

The Museo dell'Emigrazione Veneta in Belluno explores the lives of people who left the Veneto for other parts of Europe and the wider world. Objects, photographs and recorded memories connect the scale of migration with individual experiences.

Why it matters

Emigration shaped the economy and family life of Belluno and the surrounding valleys. The museum extends that local story to the whole Veneto, drawing on the archives and relationships of the Associazione Bellunesi nel Mondo.

What to notice

The narrative follows three themes: departure, arrival and remembrance. Suitcases, identity papers, work documents and family photographs give material form to these experiences. Letters and oral testimonies convey the effort of maintaining relationships across great distances.

Context and history

The museum evolved from Belluno's Museo Interattivo delle Migrazioni, inaugurated in 2013. Its regional focus links seasonal work in central Europe with longer-distance migration to the Americas and Australia. The remembrance of workers who died in the 1965 Mattmark disaster also belongs to this history of labour abroad.