Once hosted inside the Church of San Romualdo, today the BYRON MUSEUM and RISORGIMENTO MUSEUM is now inside Palazzo Guiccioli, overlooking the central Via Cavour.
BYRON’S HOME IN RAVENNA
Austere palace of the 17th-century and home to the noble Guiccioli family during the 19th century, between 1820 and 1821 the palace hosted the famous English poet George Gordon Byron, who came from Venice to follow his beloved young and beautiful Teresa Gamba, wife of the owner of the palace, count Alessandro.
A demanding series of renovation works now allow us to admire stunning and wonderfully frescoed halls. The permanent exhibition dedicated to Byron tells his life and works, thanks to various multimedia devices curated by Studio Azzurro and to many precious original editions and memorabilia, portraits and busts of the protagonists – medallions and sentimental memories collected by Teresa at the time of their intense relationship and now back to the home where they left from.
Extraordinary testimonies and moving life memories, recalling exchanges, readings and poems – an innovative and fully “literary” museum.
RISORGIMENTO
It is right in Ravenna, in the heart of the revolutionary and oppressed Romagna, that Byron encountered his passion for politics. Overwhelmed by dangerous relationships with rebel Carbonari, Byron engaged in the fight for the independence of Italy before and Greece later – a passion that replaced the literary and romantic ones, and brought him to death when he was only 36.
Part and parcel of the history of Risorgimento in Ravenna, his intellectual life intertwines with reflections, literature and the political engagement of the Italian people. Risorgimento was made of conspiracy and thoughts, which are told through the memories of the people of Ravenna in the sumptuous piano nobile of the palace.
The exhibition of these objects witnesses the fight for independence from the Napoleonic era to the Unification of Italy, through the adventurous passage of Garibaldi in the pine forests and lagoons around Ravenna. Here emerge the great and tragic figure of Anita and the many stories of the people from Ravenna, often very young, pursued ideals of freedom. Objects tell thousands of stories, of politics and fights – an epic period narrated through images, personal objects, public symbols.
