Company museums

Showcasing tradition and evolution

As a group with a strong tradition and passion for what we do, we proudly own two museums that showcase the evolution of the materials with which we are deeply involved. Recently, we also began a collaboration with another museum dedicated to water—an element we deeply value. We consider our company museums cultural assets conserving historical heritage, expressing the enterprise’s ethical and aesthetic values and the capacity for innovation transmitted from the past to the present.

Opened in 1995, the plastic museum’s collection includes more than 2000 objects and describes the role of this versatile material, spanning two centuries of experimentation, technology, and countless applications.

It is housed in the art nouveau building of the former Sandretto factory in Pont Canavese, a village among rolling hills on the slopes of the Italian Piedmont mountains. Objects are displayed chronologically according to plastic’s main historical stages with bilingual descriptive panels, old photos, iconographic materials, and historiographical hints at the pioneers and their inventions, taking visitors on a temporal journey.

Standouts include household goods, toys, telephones, radios, smokers’ articles, and personal and furniture accessories that changed the way we live and contributed to leveling social differences.

The museum is open to the public with guided visits by reservation from April to October, every Sunday afternoon and on national holidays.

Based in Netro, Italy, the Iron Museum hosts a collection of 1500 pieces, tracing the history of the former Rubino workshop and bearing witness to the evolution of iron working methods.

In the northwest area of Piedmont, along the Ingagna River, the first production units for iron processing were established in the late 16th century, with Netro at the heart of a significant industrial development.

The Iron Museum and Documentation Center displays sets of tools produced by Officine Rubino alongside drawings, sample books, technical manuals, and machinery, each testifying to the evolution of processing systems and allowing them to be linked to local practices in the regions where they would be used.

The museum is open on special occasions, with guided visits by reservation.

The Water Museum in Naples is part of the Lapis Museum, featuring an underground route that descends 40 meters below the surface and dates back 2,000 years. This journey begins in the basement of the Basilica della Pietrasanta and takes visitors deep into the city’s core via the historic center’s first archaeological elevator.

The route explores the history of Naples’ oldest church and the ancient Greek-Roman city of Neapolis, showcasing Greek-Roman cisterns brought back to life through a collaboration with ABC Napoli (the Neapolitan water company). The restored underground spaces now offer captivating water jets, streams, and dramatic light displays created by an advanced technological system highlighting their volumes and vaulted ceilings.

Additionally, the Submerged Decumanus includes a section of the ancient Roman aqueduct carved into tuff rock around the sixth century BC and repurposed as an air-raid shelter during World War II. Quarried initially by the ancient Greeks and Romans for construction, the tuff later became part of the aqueduct system before being adapted as wartime shelters in the 1940s.