The Civic Museum of the Disappeared Villages of Villa Estense, located on the first floor of Palazzo Valentinelli, tells the story of the early medieval centers of lower Padua that have now vanished. The museum includes a large exhibition hall divided into four thematic areas, a conference room, and a study room with a historical archive. The first area introduces the territory from the late Roman period to the early Middle Ages, when silvo-pastoral settlements and the abandonment of waterways marked a demographic and environmental downturn, until the revival between the 10th and 11th centuries, with the emergence of the first villages of huts adjacent to churches.
Villages such as Ancarano and Finale (Villa Estense), Vescoana (Granze), and Castelaro (Merlara) are illustrated. Display cases and models reconstruct the settlements, while maps and surveys highlight lakes, waterways, communication routes, and Roman centuriation. Artifacts from the paleovenetian era to the Middle Ages are exhibited: coarse and decorated ceramics, mortars, fragments of deer antlers, bronze fibulae, small jugs, and bells for sheep.
The museum also documents the evolution of the villages: the settlement of Ancarano, mentioned in 1077 by Henry IV, devastated by floods in the 1400s, and Vescoana, with traces of majolica ceramics from the 14th to 15th centuries. Sasso Castelaro bears witness to fortified late Roman and medieval settlements. The final area exhibits incised ceramics and Renaissance porcelain, illustrated with decorative techniques of engraving and metalwork. The Museum, born from the Lower Padua Group, offers an educational and multimedia path that recounts the history, archaeology, and daily life of villages that have now disappeared.
