Museums in Bologna
Saturday, October 25th, 2014
I’m not much of a museum goer but the lovely K picked out a couple that seemed like my kind of places. They are not major visual art museums and probably are little touristed. Certainly when we went to them there were very few people. The first, the museum of the resistance, had half a dozen people other than us (all italians) and the industry museum had nobody else other than us. The museum of the resistance was very moving. Bologna was very resistant to the German occupation. There were photos giving the background showing propaganda against any resistance and urging people to not be traitors and to stand with il Duce (Mussolini). There were pages from newspapers noting the arrest and execution of resistance members, pictures of groups with small arms. Both men and women were participants. There were also a number of photos, some from the American military archives, of bombardments of Bologna (so sad!) and of the liberation of Bologna. Apparently the germans were routed by polish troops first prior to the triumphal entry into the city by American and British troops.
From American military archives. Welcoming American troops to Bologna
The other museum also really fascinating and well done. It had a lot of machines both modern and ancient used, and often invented by Bolognese. Probably the most spectacular was a half scale model of a complicated wooden contraption that spun silk thread. The model didn’t actually make the thread but did move around as if it were actually doing the job. Who would have guessed that Bologna was a major silk center for a couple of centuries before competition from France and advances in technology decimated the Bolognese silk industry.
Small model of silk threat manufacturing machine
1/2 scale “almost” working model of the silk machine
