MuSa: Museo di Salò

The MuSa or Museo di Salò (Salò Museum) is a municipal museum which presents the history of the city of Salò. The museum is located within the former Church of Santa Giustina, constructed between 1588 and 1608. Damaged by fighting during the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859, the building was deconsecrated and employed as a school; starting in the 1990s, discussions began on converting the property into a municipal museum. The MuSa was inaugurated and opened to the public in 2015.

Exhibits include local archaeology, historical scientific instruments from the nearby Pio Bettoni di Salò meteo-seismic observatory (founded in 1877), skeletal pieces from the collection of local anatomist Giovan Battista Rini (1795-1856), and an extensive art collection. Several exhibits are dedicated to the experiences of Salò’s inhabitants during the Second World War and the city’s unique position as the administrative center of the Italian Social Republic or Salò Republic (1943-45), the German-controlled rump state led by Mussolini following the German occupation of Northern Italy. These include a collection of propaganda posters produced by Italian Social Republic authorities. Temporary exhibits present artifacts and documents which shed light on individual aspects of life under the brief, two-year Republic, including artwork created in that period and the experiences of students and schoolchildren. Military medals and uniforms from soldiers native to Salò, beginning in the Napoleonic Wars and continuing to the present day including under the Italian Social Republic, are displayed in the attached Blue-Ribbon Museum (Museo del Nastro Azzurro), unique in Italy.