Museum of Historical Military Relics, Chiaramonte Gulfi

The collection of Emanuele Gulino, a nationally renowned collector, exceeds a thousand artifacts, covering events that have shaped Italian military history over the past two centuries.

The preserved relics encompass tragic and heroic moments of our soldiers, in the trenches of the Carso or on battlefields in Africa, Greece, and Russia. The richest periods for artifacts remain the First World War, the Fascist era, and the Second World War.

The exhibition series of the collection is dominated by military headgear, from all kinds of sources. Then there are helmets (some with entry and exit holes, others with radio headsets) from various generations and countries.

Weapons are abundantly represented. Already at the museum entrance stands a Breda 76/40 cannon, emblematic of traditional warfare. Then gas masks, sabers, mines, hand grenades, the skeleton of a machine gun, a 1908 projectile, a machine gun ammo belt, a torpedo-like bomb, large cannon shells, a triple tear gas cartridge, and then various parts of airplane fuselages, a 1943 fuel tank for the aircraft’s flight autonomy.

A vast collection of military uniforms is proudly displayed, featuring every type of insignia and badge.

Some exhibited lighters, sent by soldiers to their families, bear poignant dedications: “Please don’t try to talk to me about Vietnam: I have already been there.”