The Museum of the Sea and Shipwrights was established to enhance the cultural heritage linked to the craftsmen who for centuries have designed, built, and repaired boats for navigation around Sardinia. Cagliari, Stintino, Alghero, Carloforte, La Maddalena, and Sant’Antioco hosted the main shipyards, where hulls were made for fishing, local traffic, and the transport of goods and minerals.
The Maestri d’Ascia were highly skilled professionals, capable of choosing the most suitable wood and shaping it with the tool that gives them their name, the axe, to adapt it to the vessel’s purpose. Even today, the roles of the Master and the Apprentice are recognised in the Navigation Code and its Regulations.
The exhibition path of the MuMA, set up in the building that housed the old slaughterhouse of Sant’Antioco, is an immersive and ever-evolving experience. It tells the story of the lagoon, the shipwrights, the lighthouses, and the semaphores through images, videos, and texts.
Recently, a new room dedicated to the saltworks of Sant’Antioco has been inaugurated, further enriching the narrative of the area.
