The Toy Horse Museum was completely refurbished in 2009 and is located inside the Chicco Village in Grandate, just outside Como. In 2004 Sir Pietro Catelli, founder of the Artsana Group, purchased the Livery and Breeding stables called “del Portichetto”, where the famous thoroughbred racing horse ‘Tornese’ was born and bred: “the Flying chestnut” was world champion many times at the end of the 1950s.
The local Council had already named the road after him, and Pietro Catelli decided to name the first toy horse museum in the world in his honour: there are over 560 toy horses on show, a collection that comprises a number of truly outstanding examples, from all corners of the planet and all historic eras.
But there is something else that makes this collection so special: each individual item is not simply an expensive antique or rare collector’s item, they all have their very own life and story to tell; this is why they have all been given a name: Camilla, Garibaldo, Andronico, Medea, Max, Tirvo and many others. And then there is Gigi, who is over 1,000 years old. Alongside these unique pieces you will find toy horses that used to belong to many of our visitors who, enchanted by the magical atmosphere, decided to donate their prized play companions to the Museum.

A unique toy horse greets the visitors to the Museum, which was made for the film called “Pinocchio” by Roberto Benigni: it is 5 metres tall and 7 metres long, designed for the Land of Toys. The Museum is part of the Business Museums and the Museum System in the Province of Como. The Museum won the special Guggenheim Business and Culture prize a few months after its inauguration, with a special mention “the project collates the value of a specific theme and the suggestive aspects of a communication strategy in line with Chicco’s corporate spirit and mission’’.

“We must protect these precious objects and put them on show – Sir Catelli used to say – after shaking off the dust they have collected after being relegated to the attic following the invasion of electronic games”.

www.museodelcavallogiocattolo.it