Museo Padre Eusebio Chini
Father Kino: hero, saint, missionary, cartographer, cosmographer and anthropologist.
Established in 1997, Taio Museum takes visitors on a journey through the life of Father Eusebio Chini, scholar and missionary. The exhibition, starting with the bronze statue at its entrance - a copy of the one created by sculptress Silvercruys for the Temple of Fame in the United States of America - takes visitors to the auditorium, where Mexican artist Nereo de La Peña's murals illustrate events of Father Kino's life in Sonora and Arizona. His work as a cartographer, cosmographer, anthropologist and agronomist is documented through period tools and reproductions of maps drawn by him, while folk-life and habits of the Indians are described through the customs and utensils they used to feature in their everyday lives. An astrolabe, a Galilean telescope and a compass - all tools harking back to the 17th century - are on display in a room on the second floor. At the end of the exhibition, visitors are brought back to the piazza to admire the large mosaic by Mariano Fracalossi, which covers one of the museum's outdoor walls.
Born in Segno on 10 August 1645, Eusebio Chini was a Jesuit whose ambition was to spread the teachings of the Gospel in Mexico and America. On 13 March 1687, Father Francisco Kino embarked on his life's work - the evangelisation and civil, social and economic development of the Pima tribes who inhabited the Pimeria Alta, Northeast of the River Sonora. For twenty-four years, Father Kino remained the heart and soul of the numerous missions he founded. They have now become flourishing cities in the states of Sonora and Arizona. He built churches, founded colonies, taught Indians how to farm the land, and defended them from Spanish conquerors' greed and abuse. He also wrote reports, drew new topographic maps, and was able to document California's peninsula-like shape.