A vast collection of finds, including weapons, uniforms, equipment, photographs, documents and personal objects of soldiers coming directly from the battlefields of the plateau, which was the scene of fierce fighting between 1915 and 1918
The Historical Museum of the Great War 1915-1918 is located in Canove di Roana, on the Altopiano dei Sette Comuni, in the province of Vicenza and is housed in the former Canove railway station, known as “Vaca Mora”
The collection includes:
– Personal effects of soldiers (clothes, decorations, certificates, letters)
– Weapons, helmets, bombs, cannons and machine guns
– Uniforms, medals and badges
– Original maps, period photographs, documents and reconstructions of military environments
The museum itinerary is spread over two levels and offers an immersive experience, with authentic objects and testimonies that tell both the daily life of the soldiers and the military strategies adopted on the front.
Some rooms are dedicated to the atrocities and suffering experienced by both sides, inviting reflection on the tragedies of war
One of the main collections consists of artillery projectiles, of different calibers and nationalities, among which stands out an Austrian 420 mm grenade found unexploded in the municipality of Gallio in the seventies and which, with its brass case, is certainly one of the most admired pieces in the museum.
Also noteworthy is an important collection of weapons of various models and nationalities (machine guns, rifles, pistols and related ammunition, but also sabres and bayonets) and uniforms as well as numerous tools used by soldiers both in combat and in daily life in the trenches (wire cutters, canteens, helmets, mess tins, lamps, trench stoves, digging tools, …)
A collection of particular importance is also made up of personal effects of soldiers at the front collected on the battlefields of the Plateau: buttons, identification tags, pipes, watches, compasses, crosses, votive medals, coins, medals, department badges, postcards from soldiers to their families… which restore a private and certainly more human dimension of war.
over 2000 photographs accompanied by a beautiful series of reproductions of Achille Beltrame’s plates that Domenica del Corriere published in 1965 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Italy’s entry into the war, as well as numerous original documents (papers, sketches, service orders, letters…)
There is also no shortage of curiosities such as an Austrian pressure cooker from 1915 in steel and a “Pompa Palermo”, a water pump in excellent condition, which was used to remove water from our soldiers’ trenches.
Via Roma 60
Location Canove
Roana (Vicenza)
Veneto – Italy
What see province surroundings near museums historical cultural itineraries