Casa del Profumo Feminis - Farina

Casa del Profumo was opened in Santa Maria Maggiore: Eau de Cologne has its Italian museum in Valle Vigezzo. A fascinating tour through perfumes, fragrances and herbs to discover the true history of Eau de Cologne.

Casa del Profumo is a multimedia and multi-sensory museum, a flagship of Piedmont’s cultural offer: the exhibition celebrates the legendary history of Eau de Cologne, the most ancient and famous perfume in the world. Visitors will discover stories, tales, anecdotes, fortunes that are strictly connected with the phenomenon of emigration, presented also by the other two museums of the town: Museo dello spazzacamino and Scuola di Belle Arti “Rossetti Valentini”.
Casa del Profumo Feminis – Farina enriches the cultural offer of Santa Maria Maggiore, a little town in Piedmont that has been awarded Bandiera Arancione by Touring Club Italiano since 2009.

A MULTI-SENSORY MUSEUM

After the official inauguration on Saturday, 24th March 2018, the multimedia exhibition of Casa del Profumo Feminis – Farina is totally open to the public ( a part of the museum was opened in 2016) and it aims to recall the histories of two famous emigrants and, above all, it celebrates the invention and the true history of Eau De Cologne.

The formula of Eau de Cologne was invented by Giovanni Paolo Feminis, born in Crana (nowadays hamlet of Santa Maria Maggiore). When he was very young, he emigrated to Cologne. Aqua Mirabilis was created as a curative essence thanks to its medicinal properties but then it became a very renowned perfume, appreciated all over the world. Its great success was possible thanks to the friendship between Feminis and Giovanni Maria Farina, a merchant from Santa Maria Maggiore, who emigrated to Maastricht. He was the first who merchandised Aqua Mirabilis. Thanks to the creativity and pragmatism of Feminis and Farina, Eau de Cologne – and also Valle Vigezzo – became famous also abroad.

Click here below to discover the history and the future of
Casa del Profumo and to read a detailed description of the exhibition!