The Risorgimento Collection
From the end of 18th century, the new ideas and principles which would lead to the great enterprise of the Italian Risorgimento were being promoted in Gubbio by members of the nobility, legal practitioners and other professionals, as well as wealthy middle-class individuals. Gubbio’s commitment to this enterprise was not sporadic, and after Perugia and Terni, it is the Umbrian town with the highest number of citizens awarded military honours in the Unification Wars.
The Risorgimento Collection has incorporated and expanded the previous Historical Museum of the Risorgimento, which was the original collection inaugurated in 1936. It was founded by the lawyer Lamberto Marchetti, mayor of Gubbio in 1923, and ‘Podestà’ from 1927-1943, who acted as much out of civic pride as from a desire to comply with the directives of the national government anxious to revive the glories of the Risorgimento.
Over the years, a number of sizeable donations have enlarged the collection of pictures, engravings, plaster casts, photographs, letters, medals, uniforms, rosettes, weapons, flags, portraits of famous people and prints of battles on native soil.
In 2007, to coincide with the celebration of the bi-centenary of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s birth, the collection was reorganised and put on display in the Palazzo dei Consoli having been removed from its original setting in the Town Hall probably during wartime.
The collection is organised in four sections:
- Battles and Leading Figures
- Uniforms and Weapons
- Garibaldi and the Risorgimento
- Gubbio: the Men and their Ideas
Some of the objects on display invite particular attention, like the red Garibaldian shirt together with its blue kerchief and red beret, or the items of uniform of the Guardia Civica (Papal States) and several examples of sabres and pistols. Equally noteworthy is the showcase of medals awarded to Angelico Fabbri, an eminent protagonist in the Risorgimento from Gubbio.
