Museum, Gragnano Trebbiense (PC)
45°00′03″ N, 9°32′50″ E
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At a glance
- Type
- Museum
- Coordinates
- 45°00′03″ N, 9°32′50″ E
- Address
- Località Castelbosco, 29010 Campremoldo Sopra (PC)
History and description
The Shit Museum (Italian: Museo Della Merda) is a museum in the province of Piacenza, in the north of Italy, and is reported to be the world's first museum dedicated to feces. The museum opened on 5 May 2015, having been founded by agricultural businessman Gianantonio Locatelli and three associates.
History
The museum, set in a medieval castle in the village of Castelbosco, was created by a local dairy farmer whose herd of 2,500 (some reports say 3,500) cows produce 30,000 litres (7,900 US gal) of milk a day, which is used to make Grana Padano cheese. The cows also produce around 100,000 kilograms (220,000 lb) of dung, which is transformed into methane, fertiliser for the fields, as well as raw material for plaster and bricks. The dung is used to generate power to run the operation. The museum has a symbiotic relationship with the farm and cheesemaking facility. It is a byproduct of the huge aggregation of cows and their prodigious output of cow manure.
Eco-friendly recycling is an important theme of the museum. This includes the reuse of farmyard manure; however, the museum also features many artefacts on display, including a lump of fossilised dinosaur faeces, jars of faeces, art works inspired by human waste, ancient Roman medicinal cures that featured animal excrement, and a collection of dung beetles.
An even broader motif (and goal) is "transformation" in an engineering, philosophical, scatological, sociological, and practical sense. As the organization's website offers: "The idea for a new museum slowly took shape, emerging from manure to deal with the broader theme of transformation. The museum would be an agent of change which, through educational and research activities, the production of objects of everyday use and the gathering of artefacts and stories concerning excrement in the modern world and throughout history, was to dismantle cultural norms and prejudices."
Transforming the site took more than twenty years. It started with paint. The museum commissioned artists David Tremlett and Anne and Patrick Poirier to transfigure the mechanical digesters "into a sign" mixing allegorical symbols with botany, thereby creating "a work of evolutionary land art". Luca Cipelletti was the principal architect. …
Other museums
Sulabh International Museum of Toilets in Delhi, which antedates this museum, opening in 1992.
The National Poo Museum, which is ensconced within the Isle of Wight Zoo, features 20 examples of animal faeces, prepared by the Ecclestone George collective of artists and social entrepreneurs: Daniel Roberts, Nigel George, and Dave Badman. The specimens are desiccated and preserved in plexiglas. "The museum will feature relics such as freeze-dried poo, poop hanging from the ceiling and poop from various different species such as meerkats, foxes, cows, owls and even human babies." Poop is dried on a specially built machine. Viewers can illuminate each preserved exhibit at the touch of a button. It is said that this is "more of an exhibit" than a museum. The "exhibit" is scheduled to go on tour throughout the United Kingdom after its initial run in the spring and summer of 2016 at the Isle of Wight.
Another museum, called "Mr. Toilet House" or "a house to relieve one’s concerns" in Korean, a term for restrooms used in temples, is located in Suwon-si, South Korea. It was built in 2007 as a large house designed to mimic a very large commode.
There is a Japanese Unko Museum within the Himeji Museum of Literature. Among other exhibits, this being a library, it included "Excretory Literature", books on turds and related subjects.
Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Full article: «Shit museum».
Timeline
- 2015Opened
Events and people from Wikidata (CC0).
Getting there
RottofrenoTrain, nearest
6.6 km as the crow flies
Shit museumLocalità Castelbosco, 29010 Campremoldo Sopra (PC)
Distances are as the crow flies, not walking or driving.
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More museums in Emilia-Romagna
- Free 1st Sunday
Frequently asked questions
Where is Shit museum?
Shit museum is in Gragnano Trebbiense, in the province of Piacenza (Emilia-Romagna), Italy. Address: Località Castelbosco, 29010 Campremoldo Sopra (PC). GPS coordinates: 45.00088, 9.54733.
What else is there to see near Shit museum?
Nearby you’ll find: Castelbosco Castle (0 m away), Castelmantova (2.8 km away), Castello di Rivasso (4 km away).
Sources and licences
Text. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Data. Wikidata (CC0); opening hours and contacts OpenStreetMap (ODbL).
Photos. Wikimedia Commons, author and licence on every image.
Credits for the 1 photos
- Castelbosco Ingresso — Mattia94raggio, CC BY-SA 3.0
Updated 28 October 2026. All sources and licences