Master luthier Ansaldo Poggi workshop

Ansaldo Poggi is considered one of the greatest violin makers of our century and his instruments are sought after and played by the world's great solo and concert artists.

He was born in Villa Fontana di Medicina in 1893 but then practised his art from the 1930s onwards in Bologna, after completing his professional training with master Giuseppe Fiorini in Zurich.

Initially, he had a clear reputation mainly abroad while maintaining his workshop in Bologna.

Relations with Medicina were non-existent until the late 1970s when his friend Medardo Mascagni, a violist and viola d'amore soloist, convinced him to return to his hometown; thus, the maestro matured the idea of donating two violins to the municipality, one made in Bologna in 1933, the other in Zurich in 1918 by maestro Fiorini.

Only three years after the donation was realised, the maestro passed away at the age of 91. Until his last moment, lucid in mind and intact in his artistic abilities, he pursued what had been his reason for living: building instruments of rare beauty and unparalleled sound.

In 1985, his workshop was transferred to Medicina, which became a carefully and faithfully restored museum-laboratory housed in the Museo Civico di Medicina.