The spas that arose in Pejo, Rabbi, Levico-Vetriolo, Roncegno and Comano are still today highly attractive sites for the therapeutic and beneficial properties of their waters. Between the end of the Habsburg domination and the 1930s, throughout the entire Belle Époque, these locations became privileged destinations for refined spa tourism, which involved the wealthy classes of Central Europe and the nearby Kingdom of Italy. The main spas therefore equipped themselves with tourist infrastructures and renovated the architectural layout of the various "baths", in some cases implementing decorative projects that involved painters specialized in interior decoration, with high-profile aesthetic results.
The painter who decorated the Vetriolo spa: Tito Chini
: This is the context in which Tito Chini (Florence 1898 – Desio 1947) was called to Vetriolo. He was a painter and ceramist belonging to an illustrious dynasty of decorators originally from Florence and founders of a renowned furnace in Borgo San Lorenzo, in Mugello. Having completed important decorative projects in Tuscany and Veneto, in 1936 the painter was commissioned to decorate the Vetriolo Thermal Baths. Disused for some time, the building was demolished in 1997, but part of the interior decoration was fortunately saved thanks to the interest of the Office of Historic-Artistic Heritage of the Autonomous Province of Trento, which urgently removed the internal mural paintings and the mosaics on the façade, in order to preserve the memory of this episode in the history of thermalism. Vetriolo's paintings are being exhibited in public for the first time at this exhibition, together with unpublished preparatory sketches and a selection of ceramic artefacts produced by the Borgo San Lorenzo factory, as part of a specific focus on Tito Chini and the Art Deco era.
Trentino thermalism
The exhibition continues to tell the story of Trentino spa tourism with particular attention to the Val di Sole area, divided into thematic sections dedicated respectively to Bagni di Rabbi and Fonti di Pejo. Other materials document the events of other spa sites in Trentino. Each section is made up of different types of works of art, ancient medical-scientific publications, objects related to the use of healthy waters, postcards and period photographs, portraits and memories of illustrious guests. Among the materials on display, a place of absolute importance is reserved for advertising posters, often of great aesthetic quality, which represent an initial method of tourist promotion of the area and which are at the same time evidence of the evolution of artistic language and taste. The original copies of the posters were loaned by private collectors and by the Salce Collection of Treviso.
In the section on the Rabbi Springs, a focus is dedicated to the figure of the writer and geologist Antonio Stoppani (Lecco 1824 – Milan 1891), the famous author of Bel Paese, a book that aimed to introduce a vast audience of readers to the Italian territory from a geographical and naturalistic point of view, inviting them to cultivate national sentiment. Stoppani contributed decisively to making the Val di Rabbi and its baths known, where he stayed several times, also through the publication of a specific volume. The exhibition is curated by the museum curators Elisa Nicolini and Roberto Pancheri and was made possible thanks to the support of the APT of Val di Sole and with the collaboration of the Terme di Pejo and Rabbi.
Cover: Bottles for the ferruginous water of the Rabbi Springs, early 20th century. Peio Springs, Pejo Spa collection
