Our town Rovereto

In town, the MART is one ne of the newest and most important museums of modern art in Europe, with over 12,000 square meters of spacious halls, mainly dedicated to the art of the 20th and 21st centuries (Warhol, Dali, Picasso, Monet, Depero, Carrà, Severini, De Chirico, Lèger, Klee, Kandinsky, Klimt, Lichtenstein, Modigliani, Beuys etc.), inaugurated in Rovereto in 2002. Many works are by Fortunato Depero, futurist artist and one of the founders of the futurist movement in Italy, from Rovereto. Mart has 9,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations and other works of art, 35,000 items in a specialized archive and 30,000 books in a rich art library. 

Founded in 1957 by Fortunato Depero, the futurist artist from Rovereto, ‘Casa Museo Depero’ is the only example in Italy of a Futurist museum created by a Futurist artist himself. About 3000 objects left by the artist to the city, and including paintings, drawings, cloth and boxwood inlays, collages, posters and playbills, furniture, toys and applied art products. These were mainly representative of Depero’s later work, but the collection was subsequently extended by donations and acquisitions. The idea of the ‘House Museum’ was originated by an agreement stipulated between Depero and the Rovereto town council. Depero pledged to bequeath his artistic production to the town, while the latter undertook to convert a house in the town centre into a permanent exhibition site for the Futurist master’s works. At the outset, the ‘Depero’, which opened its doors in 1959, was seen as a museum and permanent gallery. 

Rovereto’s castle had historically the role of a fortress. The construction of the keep dates back to the 14th century. Around the medieval construction the Venetians built between the 15th and the 16th century the military stronghold that we can see today. At the end of the 18th century the castle was occupied by Napoleon’s troops, while in the 19th century it was used as a poorhouse, a house of correction and as Austrian barracks from 1859 to 1918. In 1920 restoration work was started to make it the seat of the present War History Museum, which was opened in 1921. 

The War Museum was conceived by a group of citizens of Rovereto who wished to remember the recently concluded conflict after which Trentino was united to the Kingdom of Italy. King Victor Emanuel III opened the Museum on 12th October 1921. During the First World War Rovereto had been evacuated, bombed and had suffered large losses. The city became a symbol of the “war of liberation” and the Museum a place of remembrance to which citizens, ex-combatants and institutions throughout the world sent a large quantity of documents and memorabilia. In the following decades, the Museum extended its interests to other conflicts: from the modern era to colonial wars and to the Second World War. Run by an Association, the Museum exhibits arms and uniforms, photographs and paintings, documents and personal effects. It promotes temporary exhibitions, research, the publication of works of historical interest and participates in film productions. The permanent collection displays artefacts of WWI, and documents relating to more modern conflicts (WWII) and the development of weapons and firearms. The Great War 1914-1918 is the central theme of the Museum of Rovereto, which, for the whole of the 20th Century has represented one of the most frequently visited destinations for those who wish to embark on a pilgrimage of remembrance.