The Museum of the Landing in Sicily-1943 is situated in
Catania in viale Africa. It was established in 2000 by Catania
regional Province, that is the owner of the building. The works
of execution have been entrusted to the architect Gaspare
Mannoia.
The
museum exstends on a surface of 3000 square metres and stands in
the building "Le Ciminiere" that is the place of sulphur-mines
rescued from Catania thanks to the architect Giacomo leone. He
has combined architectonic modernity and historic memory of the
place. This model of industrial archaeology which appears above
the sea, today is the centre not only of the museum of the
Military landing and the cinema museum, but also a centre of
meeting and cultural initiatives.
The
museum of the landing in Sicily is a didactic museum that
throughout the reproduction of frameworks like a little quarter
of the epoch and of environments destroyed by the bombing, lead
the visitor towards the awareness and knowledge of the history.
Along the route photographic and textual posters show the
American advance, while some monitors show images of the advance
of the American and British Troops.
In the first floor there is the octagonal hall. The octagon,
that is a computerized structure enlivened by lights and
colours, simulates the allies’ advance. On the four walls there
are other monitors that project images of destroyed towns as
Palermo, Messina and Catania. The route continues with the
exhibition halls: military uniforms and weapons of the period.
The Testimony hall is a very interesting stay of the Museum
route for many young man and women and adults.This is the
testimony hall of men and women who lived the landing in Sicily.
From the beginning of 2006, it has enriched the route of the
Museum. In the second floor five wax statues, moulded by the
English craftsmen, reproduce Roosvelt, Winston Churchill, the
King Vittorio Emanuele III, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.
There is also the reproduction on real scale of the tent with
the personages that on the 3rd September 1943 in Cassibile
signed the armistice: the general Giuseppe Castellano and the
Commander Bedell Smith.
The route ends with the image of the British Cemetery near
Catania, where the remains of the fallen rest. On a bright
panel, placed on the feet of a sculpture in bronze, the names of
the fallen flow.
The Museum of the Landing in Sicily:
"Le Ciminiere"
cultural and exhibition centre viale Africa -piazzale Asia
telephone:
095.4011929 - 095.533540. Visiting hours: the museum is
opened every morning, except on monday, from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30
p.m. The museum opens also during Tuesday and Thursday
afternoons from 3.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. Full fare: € 4,00
Reduced-rate ticket: € 1,00 groups (at least 10 persons), groups
of students and visitors younger than 18 and older than 60.
