. Il Museum of Palazzo Pretorio brings another to the city’s attention core from the deposits and presents a new display case dedicated to some relics belonging to the former Museum of the Risorgimentoset up in the Palace at the beginning of the twentieth century. Thus comes to a conclusion the expansion project which recently saw the inauguration of the hall From the Deposits to the Museumof the section Meadow before Meadow and a part of tactile sensory path per a museum that want share and be ambassador Also from the history of the territory.
«With this new section our Civic Museum is further strengthened and gives us a complete picture of the history of the city”, states the mayor Ilaria Bugetti. “Prato played a leading role in the Risorgimento, well told by the objects exhibited at Palazzo Pretorio. Objects donated to the Municipality over the years by the same Pratesi who actively took part in this fundamental passage in the history of our country. A new exhibition area that also well represents the high scientific value of the work carried out by the director Rita Iacopino and all the staff to enhance the great heritage of our Museum. A point of strength and a source of pride for us municipal administrators.”
In the new section you can admire rifles, sabers, helmets and uniform accessories, coming mainly from citizens of Prato who, starting from the end of the nineteenth century, wanted to donate to the Municipality rare testimonies of their participation in the Risorgimento epic.
«The complete survey of the material belonging to the ancient Museum, which required careful inventory, dating and documentation work, led to the final decision to create a section dedicated to this period, completing the layout of the ground floor of the museum, which tells, through particular objects and significant works, the history of the city.», explains Rita Iacopino, Director of the Museum of Palazzo Pretorio.
Inauguration of the display case of relics of the former Risorgimento Museum_ The Director of Palazzo Pretorio Rita Iacopino and the representatives of the bodies involved
The inventory verification work for the reconnaissance of weapons and war materials was carried out in agreement with the Tuscan Coordination for the Promotion of Risorgimento values and with the help of theAssociazione Armorum Art of Dovadola. The restorations of some of the objects on display were carried out by Restoration laboratory of the Textile Museum it’s yes Jennifer Di Fina.
In the new display case, a small but significant exhibition is reserved for Adriano Zarini, soldier and patriot, which includes a painting by Tommaso Palloni, which portrays him on horseback wearing the Tuscan Dragoon uniform, and the precious chenille helmet, the travelling pistols, and the dragoon boots with the initials A and Z on the sole which, made of shoemaker’s nails, left footprints in the mud or dust.
A focus on the period 1848-49, when the people of Prato participated in large numbers in the heated democratic season that culminated with the Tuscan Provisional Government of Guerrazzi, Mazzoni and Montanelli.
On display: chiseled helmets that belonged to the civic guard, epaulettes, uniform accessories and sabres of rare beauty that with their decorations represent the artistic skills of the Tuscan gunsmiths of the 19th century. Alongside this, weapons such as those with which the Tuscans fought at Curtatone and Montanara as well as the famous medal that decorated the chest of the veterans of that battle.
«This exhibition space is one of the few in the region dedicated to the Risorgimento: in Palazzo Vecchio there is a room with busts and paintings dedicated to Florence as the capital; in Lucca in the Palazzo Ducale, a museum of the Risorgimento; in Modigliana one dedicated to Don Giovanni Verità and Garibaldi’s legacy in Tuscany. The reopening to the public of a space like this, even if small, therefore represents a fundamental tool for preserving the memory of the events and characters that led to the unification of Italy», as he recalls Alessandro Minardi, historical and vice-president of the Committee of Romagna Tuscany for the promotion of Risorgimento values.
For further information on the Risorgimento Museum and the historical period it represents, the Museum of Palazzo Pretorio, in collaboration with the Roncioniana Library and the State Archives of Prato, is organizing the series of meetings in autumn The Risorgimento in Prato. History, memory, documents, museum, open to the public.
September 20, 2024 5:00 pm – Palazzo Pretorio Museum (Piazza del Comune, Prato)
Speakers: Rita Iacopinodirector of the Palazzo Pretorio Museum in Prato; Christian Satto, researcher of contemporary history at the University for Foreigners of Siena and president of the Coordination of Committees for the Promotion of Risorgimento values.
October 9, 2024 5:00 pm – State Archives (Via Ser Lapo Mazzei 41, Prato)
Speakers: Niccolo Lucarellimilitary historian; Adele Manzoniarchivist.
October 23, 2024 5.00 pm – Roncioniana Library (Piazza San Francesco 27, Prato)
Speakers: Andrea Giaconiresearch fellow at the University of Calabria and secretary of the Prato Committee for the Promotion of Risorgimento Values; Alessandro Minardihistorian and vice-president of the Romagna Toscana Committee for the promotion of Risorgimento values; Giovanni PestelliRoncionian Library.
The ancient Museum of the Risorgimento
Located since at least 1912 in a small room on the first floor of the Palazzo Pretorio, the Risorgimento Museum was formed with the first donations, in particular that of Adriano Zarini, in the early years of the twentieth century.
Part of this first exhibition were National Guard mounts, medals, rifles with bayonet, four National Guard drums, two saddles (dragon style and English style), harnesses, two small paintings by Palloni, one of which is now exhibited in the Town Hall, swords, sabers, revolvers and other relics and objects, including the nineteenth-century lucchi and the Gonfalonier’s Mace displayed on this floor.
Like other museums of the Risorgimento that arose between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, the Prato museum aimed to educate the people in patriotic ideals, thanks also to the contribution of the many donations that in that period arrived to the Municipality and then to the Civic Museum, which became the natural container of the city’s memories, promoting historical knowledge of the more recent past.
In 1919, Angiolo Badiani was responsible for reorganizing the Risorgimento museum, which collected the memories of the recently ended war with the collaboration of the Committee for the erection of a monument to the fallen and General Nannicini, who contributed to significantly increasing the collection of memorabilia. Following the restoration work on the first floor of the building, completed in 1926, the Risorgimento museum was moved to the first mezzanine where the most recent acquisitions, relating to the Great War and the increasingly numerous donations from private individuals, were placed: bombs, grenade launchers, rifles, letters, portraits with dedications “of all the leaders of the Great War” and printed proclamations were added.
During Fascism, which proposed itself as the ideal successor of the Risorgimento, other materials were collected, so much so that in 1934 the Risorgimento Museum needed more space and was moved to the larger room on the same mezzanine. In the following years, new donations increased its heritage, which was enriched with numerous engravings, letters and objects, including the helmet and saber of the architect Fortunato Rocchi, donated by his son Raffaello in 1936. In the same year the Fund arrived at the museum Cironi, consisting of manuscripts, memories and miscellanies of the Prato patriot, Piero Cironi, now kept in the State Archives of Prato. A large part of the collection of the Risorgimento Museum merged into the great exhibition dedicated to the Risorgimento which took place on the first floor of the Palazzo Pretorio in September-October 1937 and in which the Roncioniana Library, the Cicognini Convitto, the Arciconfraternita della Misericordia, the Hospital della Misericordia and private citizens, making memorabilia, weapons, documents, prints and postcards available to the community for what was the last great event around the Risorgimento Museum, increasingly inserted into fascist propaganda.
After the Second World War and the new layout of the Civic Museum by Giuseppe Marchini in 1953, the relics and materials of the Risorgimento Museum remained kept in storage, surrounded by a sort of damnation of memory for what they represented during the fascist period. The new cataloging of these objects and the setting up of this showcase have the aim of renewing interest in the Risorgimento epic, bearer of values of independence and freedom, with a privileged vision aimed at local events and protagonists.
Press release PALAZZO PRETORIO MUSEUM Daniel C. Meyer M.
