The Historical Museum of the Engineering Corps occupies the entire ground floor of the building, about 4,400 square meters in area, and has the task of testifying to the close connection that has always existed between civil society and military engineering in all fields of engineering and architecture. Preceded by two Honor Halls, featuring relics of the Engineering Lieutenant Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, and General Federico Menabrea, scientist and Prime Minister, the Museum is divided into two large sections:
The first concerns the Engineering Corps in all its specialties: peacetime engineering, those formed in wartime, and those that have evolved so much over time as to become autonomous branches such as the Air Force, Motorized Corps, Military Chemical Service, and Communications.
The second section is dedicated to the Military Engineering Corps in the various wars that succeeded from the Kingdom of Sardinia to the Italian State, up to and including the Second World War. Along the route, visitors find an extensive range of documentation that highlights the importance of the technical and historical aspects of the artifacts. For example, there is a broad overview of standard and temporary road bridges designed for rapid crossing of interruptions: floating bridges including the notable 160/14, which played a leading role in epic river crossings such as the Piave or the Dnieper in Russia.
Attention is due to the Dirigible pilots and Aerostiers who with their fragile means foreshadow the Air Force.
After the hall concerning the Colonies, there is a large Memorial dedicated to all the Fallen, with an Altar donated by all the Officers of the Engineering Corps. This is followed by rooms dedicated to military campaigns and their relics, starting from the Roman Republic of 1848-49, continuing with the Crimean Campaign 1855-56, and the Siege of Gaeta 1860-61, highlighting the great western works of General Menabrea and the first rifled cannons of General Cavalli. A wide documentary review of communication means follows, from fire signals of the Homeric era, the use of carrier pigeons, increasingly perfected optical devices, and then the telegraph, radio, and its brilliant inventor, Guglielmo Marconi, captain of the Engineering Corps, and his revolutionary devices.
On the first floor is located the Historical Museum of Military Architecture which, with numerous models and dioramas, illustrates the history of Italian and European military architecture, starting with prehistoric hill forts to Sardinian nuraghi, continuing with Roman fortifications, medieval castles, forts of various ages up to the present day.
The visit concludes in the Giulio Cesare Hall, dedicated to the “First Great Engineer” in history.
The area where the museum stands belongs to the Vittoria district, which, along with Prati, constitutes one of the most cohesive expansions of modern Rome, thus allowing a panoramic view of the most interesting architectures carried out in the capital between 1890 and 1935.
