Pontificia Fonderia di Campane Marinelli e Museo Storico ad Agnone

In Agnone, the Marinelli Museum is one of the few in the world that gathers a vast collection of bells from the year one thousand to our days, each with its shape, friezes, inscriptions, and particular sound. Written and iconographic material, drawings, sketches, reproductions, precious manuscripts and publications, documentation on the ancient art of bronze casting, complete the artistic, historical and cultural heritage of the museum.
The Museum was founded in 1999 and is adjacent to the Marinelli Foundry, which has operated in Agnone since the Middle Ages. In it are documented origin, history and traditions, referring to the bells and is exposed the largest collection of sacred bronzes in the world including the precious "bell of the year one thousand".
Moreover, there are preserved studies, manuscripts, ancient documents and rare texts such as the Dutch edition, dated 1664, of "de tintinnabulis", a work defined as the "bible" of bell art. A big space is dedicated to the great events of the 20th century which are commented by the Marinelli founders' work through photographic evidence and commemorative bells.
Inside the Museum there are also the library, the archives, the video library, and the projection space, which are forges of work and study on the art of bells, where scholars and founders meet to discuss the activities of professional training and to deepen different fields of research. At the main entrance, the bronze portal reproduces in large size the "Tavola Osca di Agnone" of the 3rd century BC. As soon as we enter, on the left we can already see small bells, artistic bronzes, bas-reliefs, mortars.
To discover all the secrets of the bell, before starting the itinerary, it is useful to stop in the projection room on the right to watch some short introductory films. Continuing on the left there are all the tools that were used for the working, the birth and the functioning of a bell. Immediately afterwards, it is possible to observe the working phases of a bell composed of the core, the false bell and the mantle. After having carefully observed how a bell is born and, continuing the itinerary, the large photos of the ancient foundry and the papal coat of arms, we move to the "gallery". Here a long historical itinerary shows large and small bells of the Marinelli and other Italian founders.