From cannonballs to aerial bombs
The Museum’s collections include bombs and projectiles ranging from the first examples of stone balls used with the introduction of firearms to the most modern weapons systems, including artillery projectiles, aircraft bombs, hand grenades, rifles and mines.
In the 1914-1918 Artillery section, in Piazza Podestà, the Museum exhibits a wide selection of ammunition material from the First World War (shells, fuses and cases). There are substantial collections of hand grenades, rifles and aerial bombs from the Second World War.
Of great interest is the collection of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines from the First World War to the present day, described in the Museum publication Le mine antiuomo e anticarro nelle guerre italiane del Novecento (Anti-personnel and Anti-tank Mines in the Italian Wars of the Twentieth Century). The collection has been the subject of awareness raising events on the topic of demining, in collaboration with the Italian Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations (find out how to buy the book).
