Il Museo storico dell’Arma del Genio occupies the entire ground floor of the building, about 4,400 sqm of surface, and has the task of witnessing the intimate connection that has always existed between Civil Society and Military Engineering in all fields of engineering and architecture. Preceded by two Honor Halls, in which stand out the relics of the Lieutenant of the Engineers Camillo Benso Count of Cavour and General Federico Menabrea, scientist and Prime Minister, the Museum is divided into two large sectors:
the first concerns the Engineers in all their specialties, those of peacetime, those formed in wartime, and those that have evolved so much over time as to become even autonomous, such as the Military Aeronautics, the Automotive Corps, the Military Chemical Service and the Transmissions.
The second sector is dedicated to Military Engineering in the various wars that have succeeded from the Kingdom of Sardinia, to the Italian State, up to the entire Second World War.
The visitor finds, along the path, a vast amount of documentation that testifies to the importance of the technical and historical aspects of the artifacts. This is the case for the broad overview of regulatory and occasional road bridges for the rapid crossing of interruptions: floating bridges among which stands out the 160/14, protagonist of epic river crossings, such as the Piave or the Dnepr in Russia.
Attention is deserved by the Dirigible pilots and Aerostats who with their fragile means foreshadow the Air Force.
After the hall concerning the Colonies, a large Shrine dedicated to all the Fallen, with an Altar donated by all the Officers of the Engineers. Follow the rooms dedicated to the war campaigns and their relics, starting with the Roman Republic of 1848 – 49, continuing with the Crimean Campaign, 1855 – 56 and with the Siege of Gaeta, 1860 – 61, where the great defensive works of General Menabrea and the first rifled cannons of General Cavalli stand out. A wide documentary overview of transmission means follows, from the fire signals of the Homeric era, to the use of carrier pigeons, to increasingly perfected optical means and therefore from the telegraph, to the radio and its brilliant inventor, Guglielmo Marconi, captain of the Engineers and his revolutionary devices.
On the first floor is located the Historical Museum of Military Architecture which, with abundant models and layouts, illustrates the history of Italian and European military architecture, starting from prehistoric hill forts to the Sardinian nuraghi, continuing with Roman fortifications, medieval castles, forts from various eras to today.
The visit ends with the Giulio Cesare Hall, dedicated to the “First Great Engineer” of history.
The area where the museum stands belongs to the Vittoria district which constitutes, with Prati, one of the most coherent expansions of modern Rome, thus allowing a panoramic view of the most interesting architectures carried out in the capital between 1890 and 1935.
