The exhibition, comprising 33 rare bicycles, enables visitors to travel in time to the past, when a bicycle wasn’t only a means of transportation but also an indispensable part of everyday life.
On show are bicycles which look like mini-factories on wheels: a bakery and a barber’s shop, a veterinary clinic and a school, a fire station and a travelling cinema house. Thanks to their two-wheeled friend, milk sellers and tailors, fish sellers and clowns, pen pushers and beekeepers, potters and ragmen flourished in cities and rural areas. The ‘youngest’ exhibit is more than 60 years old whilst the geography of the collection covers Italy, England and Austria.
All these bicycles have been collected by Maurizio Urbinati — a private collector from Rimini, who spent forty years gathering them. Each exhibit is authentic and is in working condition.
This project is a joint production between the ItalyMania Company, the National History Museum of Belarus and Gomel’s palace and park estate.
By Vladislav Saveliev
