Museum for the Po River and Navigation

Address and contacts

Via Argine Cisa, 11 - 42022 Boretto
0039 0522 965601 
0039 0522 963811
+39 335 5335139 (for reservations)
info@infrastrutturefluviali.it
Museum for the Po River and Navigation
Museums of Boretto
Mab - Water Museums of Boretto

Opening times

From June 21, 2020
Sunday and holidays
03:30 - 06:30 p.m. (except bad weather)

Other days upon reservation ( 0039 335 5335139)

Possibility to reserve the tour on other days.

During the opening days of the Museum the navigation on the Po River is possible aboard the motor vessel Padus with start from Boretto Tourist Port at 04:00 p.m. The navigation lasts about one hour and the cost is € 10.00 / 15.00.

From October to March tours are possible upon phone arrangement only.

Prices

€ 2.00 - free for children under 10

How to get there

Boretto

By car
From Reggio Emilia: 30 kilometres along the Provincial Road 358
From the A1 Milan to Bologna motorway: leave the motorway at the Reggio Emilia exit and follow signs to Castelnuovo Sotto for 30 kilometers.
From the A22 Modena to Brennero Motorway: leave the motorway at the Reggiolo exit and follow signs to Guastalla for 25 kilometers.

By train
From Reggio Emilia: TPER local train service from Reggio Emilia to Guastalla.
State railway service on the Parma-Suzzara line.

By coach
From Reggio Emilia: public transport service bus No. 93 from Reggio Emilia to Boretto with branch service to Viadana (Mantua).
From Viadana: take the coach service running between Mantua and Parma.

By river
From Mantua: at the “Laghi” dock.
From Cremona: from the “Porto Fluviale” (River port)

Historical notes

Visiting a museum is like walking through the pages of a great illustrated book. In the case of the Po River Museum, the illustrations are tangible objects such as boats, anchors, signals, winches, rudders, Jacob’s ladders, megaphones, hydraulic models, engines, pumps, canoes, and period motorboats. Listing all the period paraphernalia, from nails to couplings, would be an impossible task. As you enter the museum, you are immediately faced with the view of the Great River itself, as both the landscape and the main player in this story. Under the portico, there are riverboats, a small hunting boat armed with a mounted rifle, and a wheel-boat for land reclaiming operations. The room dedicated to Chiezzi contains records of the great dockyard tradition that has characterised the town of Boretto. In the second room there are collections of technical documentation related to the 650 km course of the river, with hydraulic models from the Po River Magistrate. The navigation room gives information on the dredgers an
d contains objects that give an idea of what living and working was like aboard the great boats that once used to dredge the riverbeds and build river defences. The fourth room illustrates what happens in the deep riverbed, in the world of sand, silt, and archaeology. In the long “Hall of the Genius”, are the collected machines and materials related to the main working areas of the river, from foundries to forges, and from metalwork to wood carpentry. The visit inside the former storehouses ends with a workshop to provide students from schools with the opportunity to carry out manual-creative activities and to attend classes and courses run by specialist staff.