Year Zero Museum. Recovered Works 1919-1923

On September 10, 1919, almost a year after the end of the Great War, the Treaty of Saint Germain was signed, formalizing the handover of Trentino Alto Adige, after centuries of Habsburg rule, to the Kingdom of Italy.

This marks the beginning of a delicate issue concerning the artistic and historical heritage, both public and private, that was in our territory but had been taken to Austria and the empire's possessions during the nineteenth century and the years of the conflict.

The recovery of these cultural assets saw Giuseppe Gerola as one of the key figures, then Superintendent of Monuments of Romagna. By his will, he moved to Trento as head of the structure for the protection and conservation of the artistic heritage, as well as the first director of the Buonconsiglio Castle museum, officially inaugurated in April 1924.

Animated by the desire to reclaim and recover these testimonies of "Trentino" origin, Gerola, a character we could define as our "monuments man” after the George Cloney’s film, began an intense work that ended in 1923 and led to the return to the region of many artistic, bibliographic, and archival assets.

The exhibition, curated by Laura Dal Prà and Claudio Strocchi, aims to present to the public's attention a careful selection of this varied cultural heritage, returned to its land of origin after a long period of dispersion triggered by precise historical and cultural reasons.

Giuseppe Gerola brought some of the most important pieces of the current collections to the Buonconsiglio Castle - the very rare 5th-century Gospel Book on purple parchment, the Udalrician Sacramentary of 1042, the six Trentino Musical Codices of the 15th century, a "unicum" in the world, the Madruzzian bronze Fontanella, archaeological finds from numerous localities such as Civezzano and Doss Trento, dozens of codices, and the most important archival documents of the Episcopal Principality, now preserved at the State Archive of Trento.

Due to the themes addressed, the exhibition becomes the first “stage of approach” to the articulated program of initiatives aimed at celebrating the museum's Centenary in 2024.

(Source: Castello del Buonconsiglio)