Middle Ages are a priceless chapter of the universal history of architecture, because more than reminding us in what we failed in the past in terms of aesthetics, it reminds us in what we are failing today in terms of relationship with Nature, and quality of materials.

Thomas Allocca

Winnili Museum

Italy  |  Cilento

Museums cannot be just boxes containing documents and works of art. They must be conceived and used above all as generators of economic systems and territorial development. They cannot be just boxes of knowledge without any practical benefit in daily life. Beside their academic activity, museums must create jobs, they must stimulate real estate investments and urban regeneration, they must generate dialogues, not monologues, between past and present, between innovation and conservation.

July 2023    We start historical research and architectural inspections in the abandoned town of Roscigno Vecchia. It is a private project, self-funded by White Oak Arkitecture, at support of the project Roscigno Vecchia Museum Town by local Pro Loco. Looking for the medieval settlement we discover artistic and architectural evidences of a more ancient history, supposing a Longobard origin of the town, completely unknown by historians.

August-September 2023    We continue the research, looking for Longobard traces over the town of Roscigno, involving the nearby towns Sacco, Bellosguardo, Corleto Monforte, and Sant'Angelo a Fasanella, and collecting enough data for considering worthy a territorial museum project, aimed to searching, studying, preserving and promoting Longobard architecture as a cultural and economic resource for the whole area.

October 2023    The concept of the Winnili Museum is structured, recognizing its importance for the territory above all considering to recover the Longobard building knowledge, rooted in Viking origins, as a very effective model in regenerating, developing and managing the territory, as it was through military and religious settlements perfectly integrated into natural ecosystems. It was the gradual loss of this knowledge, over the centuries, to bring the inner Cilento to its economic and environmental decline, up to the dramatic current depopulation.

04 December 2023    White Oak Arkitecture and Pro Loco Roscigno Vecchia sign the Winnili Compact, with subscription extended to towns with Longobard history, for a territorial partnership, and the institutional approval and support.