MWA Museums
MWA Museums project
MWA Museums, acronym for Medieval Wooden Architecture Museums, is a private project founded and funded by White Oak Arkitecture, aimed at creating museums focused on medieval wooden architecture, with full-scale reconstructions, and connecting the museums to projects of urban and territorial regeneration. Started on December 4 2023 with the name Winnili project, searching for traces of Longobard architecture in four villages around Monti Alburni, in the heart of the National Park of Cilento (UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998), since December 4 2024 the project has been renamed MWA Museums, with twenty-eight signatory institutions of the MWA Compact.
The project is committed to be aligned with the principles and the aims of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), aimed at creating museums could be an international model for sustainable and resilient economic regeneration above all for depopulated historcal villages, or under depopulation, starting from their cultural heritage, transformed from cost to resource, from resource to product.
MWA Compact
Alphabetical list of the institutions joined MWA Museums project, as sites of historical and archaeological research, and operational partners for museum projects.
31 towns 1415 kmq 52200 inhabitants
Town of Altavilla Silentina
Salerno | Italy 55 kmq 7050 inh DGC 113 _ 10 September 2024
mayor Francesco Cembalo
Town of Aquara
Salerno | Italy 35 kmq 1300 inh
mayor Antonio Marino
Town of Campora
Salerno | Italy 30 kmq 300 inh DGC 40 _ 30 December 2024
mayor Giovanni Feola
Town of Castelcivita
Salerno | Italy 60 kmq 1400 inh
mayor Antonio Forziati
Town of Castel San Lorenzo
Salerno | Italy 15 kmq 2200 inh DGC 38 _ 17 May 2024
mayor Giuseppe Scorza
Town of Controne
Salerno | Italy 10 kmq 750 inh
mayor Ettore Poti
Town of Conza della Campania
Avellino | Italy 50 kmq 1300 inh DGC 75 _ 14 November 2024
mayor Raffaele Cantarella
Town of Corleto Monforte
Salerno | Italy 60 kmq 500 inh DGC 125 _ 11 December 2023
mayor Filippo Ferraro
Town of Felitto
Salerno | Italy 40 kmq 1150 inh DGC 82 _ 20 December 2024
mayor Carmine Casella
Town of Laurino
Salerno | Italy 70 kmq 1250 inh DGC 86 _ 13 December 2024
mayor Gregorio Romano
Town of Magliano Vetere
Salerno | Italy 25 kmq 550 inh DGC 59 _ 12 September 2024
mayor Adriano Piano
Town of Monteforte Cilento
Salerno | Italy 20 kmq 550 inh
mayor Bernardo Mottola
Town of Montesano sulla Marcellana
Salerno | Italy 110 kmq 6200 inh
mayor Giuseppe Rinaldi
Town of Ottati
Salerno | Italy 55 kmq 600 inh DGC 95 _ 26 August 2024
mayor Elio Guadagno
Town of Petina
Salerno | Italy 35 kmq 1000 inh
mayor Domenico D'Amato
Town of Piaggine
Salerno | Italy 65 kmq 1100 inh DGC 74 _ 16 September 2024
mayor Renato Pizzolante
Town of Postiglione
Salerno | Italy 50 kmq 2000 inh
mayor Carmine Cennamo
Town of Rive
Vercelli | Italy 10 kmq 450 inh DGC 81 _ 12 December 2024
mayor Andrea Manachino
Town of Roccagloriosa
Salerno | Italy 40 kmq 1550 inh DGC 16 _ 14 February 2025
mayor Roberto Cavalieri
Town of Rofrano
Salerno | Italy 65 kmq 1250 inh DGC 22 _ 11 February 2025
mayor Nicola Cammarano
Town of Roscigno
Salerno | Italy 15 kmq 600 inh DGC 144 _ 7 December 2023
mayor Pino Palmieri
Town of Sacco
Salerno | Italy 25 kmq 450 inh DGC 7 _ 11 January 2024
mayor Franco Latempa
Town of San Rufo
Salerno | Italy 30 kmq 1600 inh DGC 83 _ 29 November 2024
mayor Michele Marmo
Town of Sant'Angelo a Fasanella
Salerno | Italy 35 kmq 500 inh DGC 4 _ 11 January 2024 mayor Gaspare Salamone
mayor Bruno Tierno
Town of Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi
Avellino | Italy 55 kmq 3800 inh
mayor Rosa Anna Maria Repole
Town of Sant'Arsenio
Salerno | Italy 20 kmq 2650 inh
mayor Donato Pica
Town of Sanza
Salerno | Italy 130 kmq 2350 inh
mayor Vittorio Esposito
Town of Serre
Salerno | Italy 65 kmq 3700 inh DGC 124 _ 15 November 2024
mayor Antonio Opramolla
Town of Sicignano degli Alburni
Salerno | Italy 80 kmq 3050 inh DGC 119 _ 14 November 2024
mayor Giacomo Orco
Town of Stio
Salerno | Italy 25 kmq 800 inh
mayor Giancarlo Trotta
Town of Valle dell'Angelo
Salerno | Italy 35 kmq 250 inh DGC 34 _ 28 August 2024
mayor Salvatore Angelo Iannuzzi
There is no question in sustainable and resilient architecture that cannot be answered with a wooden solution already present in the proto-Norse archetypes. And this wise knowledge was brought to Italy by the Longobards.
Thomas Allocca
Krūnatun
Started in March 2024, Krunatun is an historical and archaeological research project, aimed at creating the Krunatun Medieval Museum, focused on medieval wooden architecture of the Longobard County of Cornitu (our Krunatun) whose seat was in the present-day town of Corleto Monforte, in the heart of the National Park of Cilento, Vallo di Diano, and Monti Alburni.
In December 2024, after eight months of historical and non-invasive archaeological investigations (April-November 2024), the collected data and the theories developed have been used for the book Krunatun. Corleto Monforte nell'alto medioevo longobardo, the guide for the archaeological project.
Middle Ages are an incredible source of technical solutions for sustainable and resilient architecture, but above all they are a priceless lesson in terms of relationship between Architecture and Divine.
Thomas Allocca
Mikilfara
Started in March 2025, Mikilfara is an historical and archaeological research project, aimed at creating the Mikilfara Medieval Museum, connecting European medieval sites dedicated to the cult of Saint Michael the Archangel - some of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites - through an academic yet evocative approach, focused on early medieval architecture of the Saint Michael the Archangel's pilgrimage routes, and its wooden archetypes before its monumentalization in stone.
The project also aims to explore and highlight the role of early medieval pilgrimage routes dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel, in territorial structuring, and in cultural and economic connection between northern and southern Europe, mainly regarding the connections between royal families and monastic communities of the Italian Longobards, with Norse and Anglo-Saxon ones.
Between the years 650 and 1050, the Longobards of Italy were the most fervent promoters of the cult of Saint Michael the Archangel, creating the iconic sanctuary at Monte Sant'Angelo (founded in 493 and monumentalized by Longobards), still today the most important Michaelic site in the world, part of the UNESCO serial site "Longobards of Italy. Places of the Power (568-774)" since 2011.
After the cult of Virgin Mary, the cult of Saint Michael the Archangel was the most important and widespread across Christian Europe during the Early Middle Ages. Its architecture was not just iconic in terms of cultural and artistic heritage, but also in terms of spirituality, relationships, identity and unity of people. The Mikilfara project wish to be both an architectural and a spiritual journey, over any specific god and religion, stimulating the academic world on paying much more attencion to the role of medieval architecture archetypes in structuring European societies, their national identites, and international relationships.
Articles
Sonia Maritan (10 December 2024), Editoriale. A lezione dal Medioevo, Struttura Legno, n. 47, December 2024, published by Web and Magazine, Milano, Italy
Thomas Allocca (16 December 2024), MWA Museums. I Custodi del Medioevo, Struttura Legno, n. 47, December 2024, published by Web and Magazine, Milano, Italy
Thomas Allocca (23 December 2024), Medieval Wooden Architecture Museums, Archeomedia, year 20, n. 1, 2 January 2025, published by Mediares, Torino, Italy
Thomas Allocca (24 February 2025), Roscigno Vecchia. Borgo longobardo "morto" che non trova degna sepoltura, Archeomedia, year 20, n. 5, 1 March 2025, published by Mediares, Torino, Italy
Thomas Allocca (4 March 2025), Controne nell'alto medioevo longobardo: "figlio" di Lucca e Benevento, adottato da Corleto, Archeomedia, year 20, n. 6, 16 March 2025, published by Mediares, Torino, Italy
Thomas Allocca (8 March 2025), Sant'Angelo a Fasanella. Mikilfara, un progetto museale MWA Museums. San Michele Arcangelo attrattore e propulsore di rigenerazione urbana, Archeomedia, year 20, n. 6, 16 March 2025, published by Mediares, Torino, Italy
Thomas Allocca (12 March 2025), La Via delle Grangie: dall'incastellamento longobardo alle fattorie monastiche tra VI e XII secolo. Il progeto MWA Museums per Rofrano, Archeomedia, year 20, n. 6, 16 March 2025, published by Mediares, Torino, Italy
Thomas Allocca (19 March 2025), Roscigno, sede di vice-contea di Krunatun, Archeomedia, year 20, n. 7, 1 April 2025, published by Mediares, Torino, Italy
Thomas Allocca (20 March 2025), Medieval Wooden Architecture Museums project, ISAP News, n. 74, April 2025, published by International Society for Archaeological Prospection, Manchester, England, UK
Thomas Allocca (8 April 2025), MWA Museums costituisce la macro area Alburni-Calore, Archeomedia, year 20, n. 8, 16 April 2025, published by Mediares, Torino, Italy
