Zooming in on Sardinian folklore, this museum harbours a peerless collection of filigree jewellery, carpets, tapestries, rich embroidery, musical instruments, weapons and masks. The highlight is the traditional costume display – the styles, colours and patterns speaking volumes about the people and their villages. Look out for fiery red skirts from the fiercely independent mountain villages, the Armenian-influenced dresses of Orgosolo and Desulo finished with a blue-and-yellow silk border, and the burkalike headdresses of the ladies of Ittiri and Osilo.
Other rooms display life-size exhibits from the region’s more unusual festivals. These include Mamoiada’s sinister mamuthones (costumed characters), with their shaggy sheepskins and scowling masks, and Ottana’s boes (men masked as cattle), with their tiny antelopelike masks, huge capes and furry boots.
