As anticipation grows day by day, well beyond Ravenna and even beyond Italy’s borders, the inauguration date for the Byron and Risorgimento Museum has been definitively set for Friday, November 29, 2024. The preview event will be held with national and international press, followed by open visits by registered visitors on Saturday, November 30 and Sunday, December 1.
In particular, a special event is planned for Friday, November 29, to celebrate the inauguration, attended by Ernesto Giuseppe Alfieri, President of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna, which promoted and realized the Museum, Antonio Patuelli, President of the Cassa di Ravenna and one of the original creators of the Museum alongside Alfieri and Lanfranco Gualtieri, then President of the Foundation. A strong delegation from the British and American Byron Societies will also be present.
The work is nearing completion both in terms of the architectural and infrastructural renovation of the prestigious Palazzo Guiccioli and related buildings, and the setup of the rich historiographical section of the Risorgimento Museum. This includes Garibaldi relics from the Fondazione Spadolini Nuova Antologia of Florence, chaired by Cosimo Ceccuti, and the Fondazione Craxi, as well as the engaging and emotional settings, display cases filled with memorabilia, relics, texts, and personal objects of Lord George Byron, formerly preserved by the Biblioteca Classense, reflecting his intense Ravenna period intertwined with the Guiccioli family. The museum exhibition vividly recounts the Ravenna life of the poet—an icon of Romanticism and a symbol of 19th-century European literature—whom Goethe called “the greatest poetic genius of his century.”
The museum is above all literary: through Byron’s own words, set within a recreated atmosphere of the time, it recounts the figure of the brilliant poet, traveller across Europe and the Orient, the ‘fatal’ hero, and the man of fashion who adapted his life to a poetic ideal and later to a political mission—that of individual and national freedom—closely aligned with his thought, poetry, and international fame. Not by chance, his poetic inspiration fuelled and energised his political and libertarian vocation. Both strands developed together in Ravenna, shaping the poet as a living martyr and as a major literary figure, since here he reached the fullness of his poetic expression and composed Don Juan, the final canto of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Marino Faliero, Sardanapalus, The Two Foscari, and The Prophecy of Dante.
The 24 rooms of the Palazzo Guiccioli complex, spread over two floors, which make up the Museum, are almost fully completed as regards exhibitions and the immersive animation recreating the period’s environments through surprising and all-enveloping displays of augmented reality. The characteristic “Byron Tavern,” located in the cellars of Palazzo Guiccioli, designed to welcome citizens and tourists from all over the world, is also nearing completion, along with the shop featuring collections of souvenirs and valuable and commercial items related to Byron and the Risorgimento. Interest is growing, proven by the many school groups from all over Italy that have already booked visits, confirming great attention towards not only the Byron Museum but also the Risorgimento Museum; the latter brings together and makes accessible the rich testimonies of two extraordinary collections, connecting them to each other and to Lord Byron. Booking for visits on November 30 and December 1 will be possible with details that will be promptly communicated closer to the event.
As anticipation grows day by day, well beyond Ravenna and even beyond Italy’s borders, the inauguration date for the Byron and Risorgimento Museum has been definitively set for Friday, November 29, 2024. The preview event will be held with national and international press, followed by open visits by registered visitors on Saturday, November 30 and Sunday, December 1.
In particular, a special event is planned for Friday, November 29, to celebrate the inauguration, attended by Ernesto Giuseppe Alfieri, President of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna, which promoted and realized the Museum, Antonio Patuelli, President of the Cassa di Ravenna and one of the original creators of the Museum alongside Alfieri and Lanfranco Gualtieri, then President of the Foundation. A strong delegation from the British and American Byron Societies will also be present.
The work is nearing completion both in terms of the architectural and infrastructural renovation of the prestigious Palazzo Guiccioli and related buildings, and the setup of the rich historiographical section of the Risorgimento Museum. This includes Garibaldi relics from the Fondazione Spadolini Nuova Antologia of Florence, chaired by Cosimo Ceccuti, and the Fondazione Craxi, as well as the engaging and emotional settings, display cases filled with memorabilia, relics, texts, and personal objects of Lord George Byron, formerly preserved by the Biblioteca Classense, reflecting his intense Ravenna period intertwined with the Guiccioli family. The museum exhibition vividly recounts the Ravenna life of the poet—an icon of Romanticism and a symbol of 19th-century European literature—whom Goethe called “the greatest poetic genius of his century.”
The museum is above all literary: through Byron’s own words, set within a recreated atmosphere of the time, it recounts the figure of the brilliant poet, traveller across Europe and the Orient, the ‘fatal’ hero, and the man of fashion who adapted his life to a poetic ideal and later to a political mission—that of individual and national freedom—closely aligned with his thought, poetry, and international fame. Not by chance, his poetic inspiration fuelled and energised his political and libertarian vocation. Both strands developed together in Ravenna, shaping the poet as a living martyr and as a major literary figure, since here he reached the fullness of his poetic expression and composed Don Juan, the final canto of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Marino Faliero, Sardanapalus, The Two Foscari, and The Prophecy of Dante.
The 24 rooms of the Palazzo Guiccioli complex, spread over two floors, which make up the Museum, are almost fully completed as regards exhibitions and the immersive animation recreating the period’s environments through surprising and all-enveloping displays of augmented reality. The characteristic “Byron Tavern,” located in the cellars of Palazzo Guiccioli, designed to welcome citizens and tourists from all over the world, is also nearing completion, along with the shop featuring collections of souvenirs and valuable and commercial items related to Byron and the Risorgimento. Interest is growing, proven by the many school groups from all over Italy that have already booked visits, confirming great attention towards not only the Byron Museum but also the Risorgimento Museum; the latter brings together and makes accessible the rich testimonies of two extraordinary collections, connecting them to each other and to Lord Byron. Booking for visits on November 30 and December 1 will be possible with details that will be promptly communicated closer to the event.
