A boy in Casilda, Argentina, carved cars from balsa wood and wanted, in his own words, to come to Modena to design and build his own. Horacio Pagani’s museum at San Cesario sul Panaro tells how he did it, from those first models to carbon fibre, and its visit does not stop at the last car: it walks on into the atelier, where Paganis are built by hand in an Italian piazza, under a clock tower whose bell strikes the hours.
Every car he has built keeps a promise. Juan Manuel Fangio agreed to lend his name to the first, on one condition: a Mercedes engine. Fangio died before it was finished, the car took the name of an Andean wind instead, and every Pagani since has carried a Mercedes-AMG V12. The C in that first car’s name is for Cristina, his wife, who had set off for Italy at his side, with a tent and two bicycles.
In Brief
- The museum and the production atelier behind it were inaugurated in December 2017 at San Cesario sul Panaro, near Modena.
- The visit follows Horacio Pagani from his boyhood in Argentina to carbon fibre, and a guided tour carries on into the atelier.
- Horacio sketched the building and his elder son, Leonardo, developed the project: Carrara marble, Modenese-style brick, iron, steel and glass.
- The cars are built by hand in a recreated Italian piazza, under a clock tower.
- La Nonna, the 1998 prototype on which every road Zonda was developed, stands restored in the museum.
- Every Pagani has carried a Mercedes-AMG V12, the condition Fangio set for lending his name to the first.
History
Horacio Pagani was born on 10 November 1955 in Casilda, in Argentina’s Santa Fe province, the son of a baker and an artist. As a boy he carved model cars from balsa wood, and in Reader’s Digest he found Leonardo da Vinci, whose idea that art and science must walk hand in hand became his company’s philosophy. In 1979 he built his first car, a Formula 2 single-seater with a Renault engine. Then, with Cristina, a tent and two bicycles, he set off for Italy, carrying letters of introduction from Fangio that did not, by themselves, find him work.
It was some months before Lamborghini took him on, as a lowest-grade mechanic in its bodywork department. In 1985 he was put in charge of its new composite-materials department and worked on the Countach Evoluzione; when the company would not buy an autoclave, he took a bank loan and bought one himself. His own firm, which became Modena Design, made composites by day for Renault, Daihatsu, Ferrari’s Formula One team, Aprilia and Dallara, and by night he worked on his own car. In 1992 he stood with his first collaborator, Maurizio Ferrari, before an uncultivated field at San Cesario and told him: “Here we’ll build the new factory and build the car.”
The car was to be the Fangio F1. Horacio met Dieter Zetsche of Mercedes-Benz at the Geneva show in 1993, and Mercedes agreed to supply its V12. Fangio died in 1995, and on 9 March 1999, at Geneva, the car was shown as the Zonda C12, after a wind of the Andes, its C for Cristina. The Huayra followed in 2011, named after an Andean god of the wind, and the Utopia in 2022, after Thomas More’s book of 1516. A new atelier opened near the first works in 2016, and in December 2017 Horacio cut the ribbon on it and on his museum.
The Collection
The museum is a single journey, told in the order Horacio lived it: Argentina, Lamborghini, Modena Design and the cars. It begins with the balsa-wood models a boy made in his bedroom in Casilda, already a study in lightness, and those that survived are on show; it ends in carbon fibre. Between them lie unpublished projects, original sketches, scale models and the tools of the work.
The cars change with the years, and the Zondas have always held the floor. The oldest is La Nonna, the Grandmother: chassis number 2, the company’s first true road prototype of 1998, on which every road Zonda was developed. Its engines and wheels changed over the years, its carbon chassis never did, and it stands restored. Around it the later Zondas, the Cinque and the R among them, have stood with the Huayra and Horacio’s own one-off, the Zonda HP Barchetta Revo.
Then the visit walks on into the atelier behind the museum. Pagani calls it an atelier rather than a factory, and it is built as an Italian piazza: Renaissance arches, street lamps, islands of green, cobblestones, and a clock tower whose bell strikes the hours. Craftsmen work there by hand, in the composites department, the body-finishing laboratory, under the arches where the special models are built, and at quality control. The material is Pagani’s own: Carbo-Titanium, carbon fibre woven with titanium, first used on the Zondas of 2009.
It is a museum that ends on the factory floor. The founder’s boyhood and the room where his cars are built are one visit, and the same idea runs through both halves: Leonardo’s art and science, walking hand in hand, which a boy found in Reader’s Digest and made into a company.
It is also a story of loyalty kept in metal. Fangio’s condition sits in every engine bay, the Zonda F was Pagani’s tribute to him, and the Huayra BC carries the initials of Benny Caiola, the first customer.
And the distance travelled is short: the first works, where the Zondas were built, stand about a kilometre’s walk away.
Visitor Experience
The museum stands at 26 Via dell’Industria, in the industrial quarter of San Cesario sul Panaro, with the atelier behind it, in glass, Carrara marble and Modenese-style brick.
There are two ways in: a ticket for the museum alone, with an audio guide, or a guided tour that carries on from the museum into the atelier, among the craftsmen. Cameras stay out of the production areas.
Book the tour, and come early for the museum. Modena, twenty minutes away, makes the rest of the day.
Climate
| Month | High °C | Low °C | Rainfall mm | Rainy days | Daylight h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 8° | 0° | 53 | 8 | 9.3 |
| February | 10° | 0° | 70 | 8 | 10.5 |
| March | 14° | 4° | 70 | 9 | 12.0 |
| April | 18° | 7° | 85 | 11 | 13.5 |
| May | 23° | 12° | 88 | 10 | 14.8 |
| June | 28° | 16° | 67 | 9 | 15.5 |
| July | 30° | 19° | 51 | 7 | 15.2 |
| August | 30° | 19° | 61 | 8 | 14.0 |
| September | 25° | 15° | 80 | 9 | 12.5 |
| October | 19° | 11° | 87 | 10 | 11.0 |
| November | 13° | 6° | 99 | 11 | 9.6 |
| December | 8° | 1° | 74 | 9 | 8.9 |
Monthly averages for San Cesario sul Panaro, IT, 1991–2020.
Generated using Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026 (CC BY 4.0).
Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.
Location
The museum stands on the plain between Modena and Bologna, at San Cesario sul Panaro, a town on the Panaro river. Modena lies 14 kilometres away by road, Bologna 31 and its airport 27, and Milan 188 to the north-west. The nearest railway station is at Castelfranco Emilia, 4 kilometres away.
Around it lies the Motor Valley. The Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena is 14 kilometres away, the Automobili Lamborghini Museum at Sant’Agata Bolognese 15, the Ducati Museum at Borgo Panigale 23, the Ferrari Museum in Maranello 23, Modena’s circuit 24, the Umberto Panini Collection and its Maseratis 26, and the Ferruccio Lamborghini Museum at Funo di Argelato 35. Imola, whose circuit carries the names of Enzo and Dino Ferrari, lies 77 kilometres to the south-east.
Address
26 Via dell'Industria
41018 San Cesario sul Panaro
Provincia di Modena, Emilia-Romagna
Italy
Website