Company Museum Fonderia Pontificia Marinelli
Agnone, Molise
Active continuously since the Middle Ages, the Fonderia Marinelli is the only bell-founding dynasty to survive in Agnone and Italy's oldest family-run company, with a document from 1339 already attesting to a bell cast by Nicodemo Marinelli. In 1924 Pope Pius XI granted it the papal coat of arms, and in 1995 the foundry received a visit from Pope John Paul II. The historic bell museum, set up in 1997 by Pasquale Marinelli next to the family workshop, holds among other things a 1664 Dutch edition of the treatise De Tintinnabulis. Guided tours let visitors follow the lost-wax casting process live and discover a craft tradition handed down over generations.