The Civic Museum "Insteia Polla" it is home to an exhibition entitled "Permanent exhibition of the ancient clothes of Polla". Hosted in the deconsecrated chapel of Santa Maria la Scala, it aims to illustrate the history of Polla through the most typical and well-known trait of the town: the popular clothing. It is a vast exhibition that traces the evolution of traditional local women’s clothing from the nineteenth to the twentieth century.
The traditional costume of women in Poland is the most characteristic of those of the neighboring countries, so much so that it is the pride of all women in Poland who have worn it until the last twenty-five years of the twentieth century. The exhibition is articulated according to the criterion of the occasions and circumstances that mark daily life: gala dresses and festivities, everyday clothes, ritual dresses used during processions, nineteenth-century midday dresses and mourning dresses, expertly sewn by Mrs. Teresa Sorrentino Marcigliano, an art that she learned from the teachers Luigia Forte Sorrentino and Teresa Amen in all the meticulous ways of execution of each garment, differentiated by occasion. The exhibition reproduces thirteen dresses of local costume, arranged in three showcases, worn by as many mannequins, highlighting their peculiarities.
