Scapoli is also famous internationally for being the "Capital of Bagpipes".
It is in fact one of the few towns in Italy where, together with the presence of skilled and talented players, the ancient tradition of Zampogne construction survives, thanks to a small number of craftsmen who, passing down the construction techniques, keep this musical instrument alive. , innovating it and ensuring the necessary generational change.
The Zampogna is an instrument of very ancient origin which over the centuries has accompanied shepherds on their travels, whose sound is still common and particularly familiar because it heralds the advent of Christmas.
In Scapoli, however, the Zampogna is not just Christmas.
An example of this is "The International Bagpipe Museum" named after its creator Pasquale Vecchione, inaugurated in 2002, unique in the world for its peculiarity and characteristic for the extraordinary architectural recovery of the structure, with attention to every aspect in the splendid setting of Palazzo Mancini which dominates the town from above. In the Museum, spread over three floors, it is possible to admire, thematically catalogued, numerous and valuable Bagpipes from all over the world and produced in various eras, wind instruments of rare beauty, a vast iconographic and literary documentation and an ancient artisan workshop dedicated to the historic Scapolese builders of Zampogne and Ciaramelle (Benedetto Di Fiore, Ettore Di Fiore, Gerardo Guatieri, Luciano Di Fiore and Palmerino Caccia), who passed on their incomparable art to the new generations.
In 2023, the Museum underwent important modernization works thanks to the funding granted by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers for the realization of the project "Innovation notes at the International Bagpipe Museum" which allowed the visit to be made multimedia and interactive exploiting the latest technologies and to carry out an extraordinary job of digitizing the museum heritage. In fact, with the help of an app developed specifically for tablets and smartphones and a modern website, the visitor can consult all the information on the instruments on display and also listen to their sounds.
Finally, along the fascinating exhibition itinerary it is possible to visit the permanent nativity scene of the Neapolitan School created by the Capuano Art Masters of San Gregorio Armeno in Naples.
With the International Bagpipe Museum “P. Vecchione”, which continues to be enriched with new and valuable national and international tools, the municipal administrations that have followed one another over the years have wanted to bring to light the soul of a country that has intended to relaunch its economy through cultural tourism.
Nature and environment, history and tradition, art, culture and gastronomy have coexisted in Scapoli for centuries in a profound and captivating harmony, capable of offering the ideal ingredients for quality cultural tourism and for an experience outside the official tourist circuits.
