Historical Military Memorabilia Museum, Chiaramonte Gulfi

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

The preserved relics encompass tragic and heroic moments of our soldiers, in the trenches of Carso or on the battlefields of Africa, Greece, and Russia. The richest periods in 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, of all types. And then helmets (some with entry and exit holes, others with radio earphones) from various generations and countries.

Weapons are abundantly represented. Already at the entrance of the museum 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 belt for machine gun cartridges, a torpedo-like bomb, large cannon shells, a triple tear gas canister, and then various parts of aircraft bodies, a ’43 tank for the flying autonomy of the aircraft.

A vast collection of military uniforms, with all types of badges and insignia, is prominently displayed.

Some lighters on display, sent by soldiers to their families, bear eloquent dedications: “Please do not try to talk to me about Vietnam: I’ve already been there”.