1. The path to the lake
The first phase creates a footpath linking the lakeside cycle path to the shore. Decked in solid larch, the new walkway makes an ideal spot for observing the natural habitat, home to trees and shrubs typical of lakeside flora and to a variety of animal species. From the clearing at the water’s edge, visitors can make out, a short way offshore, the ring of buoys marking where the piles of the Bronze Age pile dwelling of Bodio Centrale lie submerged in the small bay. Inland of the cycle path, the walkway threads south through the trees, crossing the existing ditch by a small bridge to reach the entrance of the new Open Air Museum, announced by a palisade of vertical solid-larch boards almost three metres tall, set slightly apart. The palisade forms a kind of “counter-façade”, at once protective and emblematic: the entrance itself sits almost hidden between two offset stretches of fencing, with the NEOBODIO logo carved into the boards. On its three remaining sides, the archaeological park is enclosed by a simple green metal fence, entirely concealed by the species of trees and shrubs that grew along these shores in the Neolithic and Bronze Age — many of them still found here today.
2. The Museum
The Museum building stands about a dozen metres back from the palisade and its entrance, approached across a broad green space that serves as both meeting point and threshold for visitors. It is a single-storey, fully glazed rectangular pavilion of around 400 m². At its heart, a 200 m² hall houses the display of archaeological finds and lends itself equally to temporary exhibitions, conferences, performances, immersive projections and educational workshops, as well as events such as the Premio Pintadera del Pizzo di Bodio, which honours Bodio Lomnago’s most deserving citizens. The hall is fitted with multimedia kiosks, tactile wooden models and ceiling projectors that cast changing scenery onto the perimeter curtains and display panels. Beyond its exhibitions, the Museum is set to become a point of reference for the whole area — for research, conservation, heritage enhancement, land-use planning and education in local history and culture.
3. Experimental archaeology
Behind the Museum, in full view through its glass walls, lies a wide fenced clearing planted with the shrubs and trees of the prehistoric landscape. Here the project recreates a village of prehistoric dwellings, complete with a small artificial pond. The first hut is being built as an initial experiment: its construction details and materials all have a direct counterpart in the finds and surveys from the investigations carried out at the pile-dwelling sites of the Varese area — above all Bodio Centrale and the Sabbione, in Lake Monate — features so consistent that they can be read as “constants” of Bronze Age house-building in western Lombardy. The open-air space is also a stage for outdoor teaching, performances and events, with the Museum and the prehistoric dwellings themselves as scenic backdrops.