Premana Ethnographic Museum

Premana, located about 20 km east of Lake Como at an altitude of roughly 1,000 metres, is one of the most spectacular sites of the European cutlery industry. The narrow streets are home to countless small workshops, and nearly all families in this 2,500-inhabitants town depend on the cutlery trade. The boom of the scissors manufacture in Premana is closely connected to Solingen in Germany. In the 1980s, production rose to almost 17 million scissors per year, covering all quality levels. Meanwhile, only 30 to 50 percent of of the output goes directly to Solingen, thanks to the "Premax" consortium that sucessfully established economic autonomy.

The ethnographic museum opened in the 1980s and has a rich collection on the local cutlery industry, including products, tools and machines. It aims to keep the local traditions of handicraft and farming alive and hosts interesting cutlery objects, especially from the 20th century.