Following great success in its first year, Vernon’s Caetani Centre is bringing back guided and self-guided tours.
After officially opening to the public for the first time last year, the Caetani Centre hosted visitors for a series of sold-out guided guided tours from July to December.
Now, the centre is ready to reopen its 126-year-old heritage home — now a museum — for a new series of guided and self-guided tours starting May 5.
“There will be a lot of new things for visitors to see and experience,” said executive director Susan Brandoli. “We have an incredible collection of Caetani family heirlooms that our volunteers have been accessioning and getting ready for display. We will be showing more of these one-of-a-kind artifacts, including 1920s’ haute couture designs by the likes of Coco Chanel, Madeleine Vionnet and Jeanne Lanvin.”
Visitors touring the museum will learn about the Caetani family’s historical significance. The family’s lineage dates back to 8th Century Italy and it bound up with stories of popes, scholars, artists, politicians and aristocrats.
“We have an incredible collection of family home movies that the patriarch, Leone Caetani, filmed before he died in 1935. The clips show the family’s life here in the Okanagan as well as extravagant trips they took to Europe in the 1920s,” said Kristin Froneman, Caetani tours and communications coordinator.
The Caetani Cultural Centre Society has been raising funds through its Bringing Sveva Home sponsorship campaign to expand its gallery and eventually exhibit the entire series of 47 paintings, some of which consist of several panels and one spectacular work, Makimono of the Ninth, which measures 20 feet in width and has been sponsored by SilverStar Mountain Resort.
Spring guided tours can be booked for Thursdays at 6 p.m., Fridays at 1 p.m. and Saturdays at 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. until June 18 at ticketseller.ca or by calling 250-549-7469. Tours can be booked for a maximum of 10 people. The guided tours take about an hour and a half with time to look around.
Self-guided tours are available for scheduled drop-in times, Tuesday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Fridays 10 a.m. to noon, with admission at the door.
For more information, visit caetani.org or call 250-275-1525.
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