The House of the Muses

The soul of a Lucanian genius

Those who arrive at the House of the Muses in Montemurro have the feeling of entering a place where memory is never static.

The rooms contain books, memories, documents and works that tell the story of the life of the “poet engineer” Leonardo Sinisgalli. Here, visitors discover the Sinisgalli who worked with Olivetti, Pirelli, Alitalia and ENI, bringing art to industry and industry to culture. An intellectual capable of inventing the magazine “Civiltà delle Macchine” (Civilisation of Machines) and imagining a future in which technology and poetry could belong together.

In its almost 200 square metres, the house offers an intimate experience: the library of over 3,000 volumes reconstructed in its original layout, the desk from which verses and scientific reflections were born, the famous portrait by Maria Padula that captures his concentrated and slightly melancholic gaze.

The permanent exhibitions further expand the narrative:

“Sinisgalli's Attic” brings to light materials found among forgotten boxes: documents, objects and books that piece together the mosaic of a restless mind.

“Intimate Sinisgalli” brings together drawings, photographs and unpublished poems from the De Donato collection.

“Elogio dell'Entropia” (In Praise of Entropy) displays coloured blotting paper with quick strokes, graphic evidence of flashes of intuition and figurative thoughts.

A man who, despite passing through the liveliest centres of 20th-century Italy, never severed his ties with his Montemurro, reflected in every line, every drawing, every memory, and here he wanted to return - forever - among “streams, vineyards and stones”, as he wrote in his verses.