Museum of the Risorgimento

Turin, Italy

The National Museum of the Italian Risorgimento is the first, the biggest and the most important among the 23 museums in Italy dedicated to the Risorgimento; and the only one which can be considered 'national' according to a 1901 law, and due to its rich and great collections. It is housed in the Palazzo Carignano in Turin.

The museum was established in 1878, shortly after Italian unification, even though it only had its first permanent exhibition in 1908. Originally located in the Mole Antonelliana, in 1938 it was moved to its current site.

Its exhibits include weapons, flags, uniforms, printed and written documents (including the original manuscript of the song Il Canto degli Italiani, dated November 10, 1847 by Goffredo Mameli, now Italian national anthem since 1946), and artworks. The new exhibition, opened on March 18, 2011, occupies about 3500 square metres across 30 rooms, and covers the real Risorgimento period, stretching from the late 18th century revolutions to the beginning of the First World War. It includes a specialized library, a prints cabinet and a documentary archive.

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Details

Founded: 1878
Category: Museums in Italy

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Fabrizio Ori (2 years ago)
Rooms do not include proper details on the historical context, it could be ok for school trips with a professor. Not worth visiting, though the parliament is a nice attraction (no access, you can only admire behind a glass)
Khaliun (2 years ago)
Very interesting museum, you can learn a lot of history. Must visit place, if you’re interested in Italy’s past
dimitrios krikonis (2 years ago)
i literally enjoyed my visit to this museum, it reminded me of how much in common we have with our friends from Italy. A must for everyone who is visiting Torino
Donipudi Satya Sri Harshita (2 years ago)
Good museum with detailed history about Italy, worth visiting.
Benjamin McEldowney (2 years ago)
(April 2022- 2 1/2 years into the COVID Pandemic) What a shame, the museum has a rich collection of artifacts but unfortunately if you come looking to learn something about Italian history, or to get some context as to how reunification came about, you will leave disappointed. As far as I can see the didactic experience of the museum was previously tied together by a series of explanatory cards. These have been removed due to COVID. Fine, but replace them with something else! I have been to plenty of museums in the last two years with more or less cheap and effective solutions to this problem. In this case something as simple as uploading a pdf of the 30 explanatory cards to the website, and linking this to a qr code would be enough. Otherwise what was the point of reopening the museum?? I also found a long-neglected app (made in 2013 and not currently advertised in the museum) on the Google Play store which appears to have even more detailed explanations and would have been a perfect covid-friendly resource. But there is a simple connection error with the museum WiFi which prevents you from getting beyond the first video. Again a very easy fix which it appears no one has bothered to take care of in over 2 years. Only simple, non-explanations were available from the staff - 'the cards are gone', 'the app is broken'. I find this all the more frustrating because this is clearly a five-star attraction which Turin should be proud of - just look at all the glowing reviews from Italian visitors who better understand the context. Unfortunately it seems like lazy management of this great resource is currently making it unaccessible and incomprehensible for visitors from other countries. On my way to the exit I found a small guidebook available for 5 euros which appeared to have the Italian French and English texts which were previously available on the room by room cards. It wasn't suggested to me by the staff either at the time of buying the ticket or when I asked for more information, and by this point I didn't feel like paying extra to go back and restart the tour with what should have been the basic amount of information available as part of the 10 euro ticket price. I hope to return in normal times to understand this treasure of Italian history better. But honestly, in April 2022, COVID should no longer be an acceptable excuse for providing a substandard visitor experience at full price.
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