In 1878, upon the death of Victor Emmanuel II, who in 1861, with the creation of the Italian state, had assumed the title of King of Italy, the Parliament decided to build a monument in Rome dedicated to the first sovereign of unified Italy, called therefore the Vittoriano.
In the monument – which was inaugurated in 1911 – the Central Museum of the Risorgimento was also to be placed, intended to collect the testimonies related to the political, economic, and social transformation of Italy in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. These testimonies consist of paper documents (letters, diaries, manuscripts of works), paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, prints, weapons which, recalling events and protagonists of this important period of our country’s history, form a great archive of the memory of the Risorgimento. The new visit route of the Museum is structured according to a chronological sequence connected to single events and figures who have in some way been protagonists.
These are the sections of the Central Museum of the Risorgimento:
The Napoleonic period; The Congress of Vienna; The revolutionary uprisings of 1820-1821 and 1830-1831; Giuseppe Mazzini and Young Italy; Pius IX; 1848: the Five Days of Milan; the Republic of San Marco; the First War of Independence; 1849 and the Roman Republic; Cavour and the Crimean War; Victor Emmanuel II and the Second War of Independence; Garibaldi and the Expedition of the Thousand; From Unity to Aspromonte; The Third War of Independence; 1870 the taking of Porta Pia; The First World War.
Integrated into the visit route is a selection of rare period films made in collaboration with Cinecittà Luce and the Experimental Centre of Cinematography – National Film Archive. In the two large Halls it is also possible to listen to some original military pieces from the nineteenth century and the First World War, selected by the Central Institute for Sound and Audiovisual Heritage.
