In March we had the privilege of visiting the brand new Museo Luxardo, which is located next to the company headquarters in Torreglia, near Padova. Our immersive experience was even more engaging thanks to the usual warm welcome by the Luxardo family and the museum illustrates 200 years of corporate and collective history through an evocative journey, which started in Zara, in Dalmatia, where it was founded in 1821 by Girolamo Luxardo, and ended in Veneto in 1947. The company is still controlled by the same family and the members of three generations work together to keep up with the founder’s legacy through a product portfolio which includes aromas, infusions and distillates; sugared aromas; non-alcoholic concentrates; preserves and marmalades. More than sixty people work at the company premises – among the Marasca cherry plantation, copper alembics, refining vats, storage warehouses, modern bottling plants, etc. – and they are supported by a sales network which operates worldwide.
The free Museo Luxardo (open by reservations from Wednesday to Saturday) represents a new and noble development phase of this historic brand. It is exemplified by the strong visual impact of the building itself, which was conceived and built by the Venetian Studio Architetti Mar with an environmentally conscious approach, considering its geographical setting in the Parco Regionale dei Colli Euganei. The external surface is made of versatile and extremely resistant COR-TEN steel blades, with specific structural and aesthetic properties, and their sequence gives a three-dimensional quality to the entire front face, where the tricks of the light give the illusion of vibration and motion. The interior is divided into several rooms, where the fundamental stages of the long family history form a circular pattern equipped with digital and video stations, which at the same time illustrate the production phases of the liqueurs – first of all Maraschino – that made the name Luxardo famous all over the world. In the welcoming adjacent company shop, which has been completely renovated for the occasion, it is possible to purchase the entire range of Luxardo liqueurs, bitters, distillates and jams.
During the official inauguration, the senior partner Franco Luxardo pointed out that it was “a strong emotion, not only for me but for the whole family to be able to see one of our greatest dreams come true. The history written by those who preceded us is the heritage of values and teachings on which we have built what we are today and it gives us the strength, every day, to walk towards the future”.
