ITINERARY 1914-45
The upper floor is marked by the permanent itinerary which, although subject to periodic changes, generally maintains a defined chronological and philological identity.
The purpose is to sequentially illustrate, showcase by showcase, the passage of time from the Great War to Liberation touching on numerous military, political and social issues.
Sections
The Trench on the Pasubio
One of the most striking routes in the Museum is the reconstruction of the Great War Trench.
It is a route that covers over 120 square meters created on a specially prepared environment on the occasion of the Centenary of the Great War.
The intention, as far as possible, is to re-propose to visitors the characteristics that distinguished a real Trench in the mountains: from the width of the path, about 75 cm, to the rooms presented: a total of nine: the powder magazine, the no man’s land, the machine gun emplacement, the troop barrack, the ration area, the latrine, the command room, the infirmary, and the field altar.
The Great War
The first section is devoted to the outbreak of World War I with a focus on the Vicenza Front.
Interspersed with a reconstruction of the Trench, the exhibit gives visitors an overview of the conflict through the equipment, armaments, personal items, and uniforms of the belligerent armies.
Nominal materials, related to known people whose Memoirs are still preserved today, are often displayed.
The 1920s and 1930s
Linking to the immediate postwar period is an important space dedicated to Montecchio Maggiore’s only Gold Medal for Military Valor, Ferruccio Bonapace a Great War fighter who enthusiastically joined D’Annunzio’s Expedition to Fiume, later falling mortally wounded in Albania in 1941.
Following, the rise of fascism and the Military Campaigns of the 1930s in Ethiopia and Spain are given ample space.
World War II
World War II is told in sectora, that is, through a section devoted to the various protagonists of the conflict: Nazi Germany, the Russian Front, the Allies, and the War of Liberation.
The armaments
Along the itinerary, armaments from the period 1914-45 are displayed in special showcases in order to testify to the technological and mechanical development that took place in just a few years.
Closing the itinerary is a section devoted to the great tragedies of the 20th century (the Holocaust and ethnic cleansing) and one related to prisoners of war.
The characters
The permanent exhibition collects thousands of heirlooms of all kinds, and among them, on the itinerary one can see many personal items collected over time and donated to the Museum or made available by families. Among the many objects worthy of mention are those that belonged to three Vicentine Gold Medals for Military Valor:
- Ferruccio Bonapace of Montecchio Maggiore
- Giovanni Cracco of Valdagno
- Giuseppe Cederle of Montebello Vicentino