In a spectacular 16th century house in Valdenogher of Tambre, the only survivor of the historic architecture of Alpago and property of the Unione Montana Alpago, are reconstructed environments that according to tradition housed a nobleman sentenced to death in Alexandria of Egypt for alchemical practices and that had found refuge, thanks to the intervention of the Republic of Venice, right in Alpago.
The facade is unusual, enriched by a decorative apparatus with basrelief on stone, so unusual that these decorations have been interpreted as symbols linked to the practice of Alchemy.
The exhibition highlights the visitor’s curiosity through the display of selected objects, concepts, knowledge and alchemical ideas.
The domestic spaces are populated by books, reproductions of alchemical images, stills and videos that tell the practice of Alchemy passing through the three floors of the building that symbolically represent the three phases of the alchemical work, Nigredo, Albedo and Rubedo, and that serve to finally reach the famous Philosopher’s Stone.
There are many peculiarities of the house: there is no fireplace and therefore the walls, especially those of the ground floor, are blackened by soot from the domestic fireplaces used, so it is said, by the ancient owner for alchemical preparations.
The House Museum, opened thanks to the collaboration of the Association Alpago History Nature, is one of the rare examples still preserved of house dedicated to this mysterious practice and houses a small but interesting library of volumes dedicated to Alchemy to be consulted on site to deepen the interesting subject.
