Founded in 1977, this is one of the largest ethnographic museums in Italy. With over 13,000 objects, it has a policy of preserving the material and immaterial record of the Po Plain.

The exhibition layout is divided into 5 sections: farming and food production, socio-community changes in the last century, changes to the landscape and environment, transmission and persistence of traditional and devotional, artistic, popular and authorial languages related to the land, the river and its myths.

The museum occupies picturesque restored premises on the upper floor of the cloister of St Simeon. The basement levels of the former monastic refectory and infirmary house, respectively, the section of archaeological finds made during excavations in the monastery complex and the collection of early farm wagons from the Po Valley, the richest in the region.