The Civic Museum of the Risorgimento is located in the ground floor of the Casa Carducci, located in Piazza Carducci 5, in central

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, Italy.

Church of Madonna del Piombo

Prior to being a Museum, part of the site had housed the church of the Madonna della Pietà, known commonly as the Madonna del Piombo (Virgin Mary of the Lead). It was so named because it contained a relief of the Madonna etched on a lead plate, attributed to Sperandio Savelli, that had gained veneration. There is also a legend that in the first years of the 16th century the icon had been discovered by youths playing here, near the city walls, and this led to the first chapel, then church. This church burned down in 1712, but was soon replaced by a frescoed oratory completed in 1752. This oratory whose facade is represented by the three round arches with double central pilasters. After the Napoleonic occupation, the members of the company who owned the oratory had the structure deconsecrated and the contents sold off to antiquarians. The oratory had been decorated by the artists

Antonio Rossi Antonio Rossi (born December 19, 1968) is an Italian sprint canoer who has competed since the early 1990s. Competing in five Summer Olympics, he won five medals which included three golds (K-1 500 m: 1996, K-2 1000 m: 1996, 2000), one silver (K ...

Ercole Graziani the Younger Ercole Graziani the Younger (1688–1765) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Bologna and Piacenza. Biography Ercole was a pupil of the painter Donato Creti and Marcantonio Franceschini. Pope Benedict XIV ordered a copy ...

, Gaetano Ferratini,

Giuseppe Orsoni Giuseppe Orsoni (1691–1755) was an Italian painter and scenic designer of the Baroque period, active in Northern Italy. He first studied under Domenico Maria Viani, then studied quadratura under Pompeo Aldrovandini. He was active as a scenic de ...

Antonio Gionima Antonio Gionima (1697–1732) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period. Born in Venice from à family of Padua, where his father Simone Gionima (a pupil of Cesare Gennari) and grandfather had been artists, he was first educated by his fa ...

, and

Lorenzo Garbieri Lorenzo Garbieri (1580 – 5 April 1654) was an Italian painter of the early-Baroque period, active mainly in Bologna. He was one of the painters in the studio of Ludovico Carracci and is sometimes called ''il nipote dei Carracci''. He was said t ...

The Museum

A Bolognese Museum of the Risorgimento (see

Italian unification The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

) was first inaugurated on June 12, 1893. The museum has exhibits that chronicle the history from the

Napoleonic Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

invasions to the end of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The main exhibits are divided into 5 eras: *The Napoleonic Era (1796-1814) *The Restoration of

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

(1815-1848) *The Epic of the Risorgimento (1848-1860) *The Unification of Italy (1860-1914) *Bologna at War (1915-1918) The Museum houses a library of documents and an archive of diverse items from the period. It houses the a project towards maintenance of the city's monumental cemetery at the

Certosa di Bologna The Certosa di Bologna is a former Carthusian monastery (or charterhouse) in Bologna, northern Italy, which was founded in 1334 and suppressed in 1797. In 1801 it became the city's Monumental Cemetery which would be much praised by Byron and other ...

. The museum has varied in scope and themes across the decades. The initial founding of the museum focused on the patriotic events leading to Italian sovereignty and union. During and after the First World War, this conflict was defined as the Fourth War of Independence. Fascism added to the focus, the ideals of a greater Italy, the aggressive colonial wars that led to the formation of

Italian East Africa Italian East Africa ( it, Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI) was an Italian colony in the Horn of Africa. It was formed in 1936 through the merger of Italian Somalia, Italian Eritrea, and the newly occupied Ethiopian Empire, conquered in the Seco ...

, the Italian intervention in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

, and the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The museum first closed in 1943, and did not reopen until 1954. Fascist wars and goals were now removed as a focus, and the Resistance to Fascism was viewed as the Second Risorgimento. The museum closed again from 1962 to 1975, and now focuses on the history prior to the Italy's entry into World War II. The museum was located in the present Casa Carducci premises only in 1990, and includes the premises of the oratory. The Casa Carducci was the last home of the poet

Giosuè Carducci Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci (; 27 July 1835 – 16 February 1907) was an Italian poet, writer, literary critic and teacher. He was very noticeably influential, and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy. In 1906, h ...

, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1906.Official site of Museum

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Risorgimento Museums in Bologna Museum of Risorgimento

Military history of Bologna