The Francesco Baracca Museum LUGO

     1. Casa Baracca
Reconstructed in 1916 but probably dating back to the second half of the nineteenth century, the house belonged to the Baracca family until 1951, when it was given to the municipality of Lugo following the wishes expressed in the will of Count Enrico Baracca, father of Francesco, that it be used as a museum.
The inscription in marble on the front of the building confirms that this is the birth house of the First World War ace, despite various sources which refer to the nearby locality of San Potito, the location of one of the agricultural estates of the Baracca family.
The building housed the middle school “Silvestro Gherardi” until the mid-Seventies. It was then occupied by various associations, the Resistance Museum, and finally Francesco Baracca Museum since the 20th of June 1993, following the transfer of the museum from its original location in the Estense fortress.
The façade is an example of twentieth century eclecticism, to which decorative elements in the floral style of the beginning of the century have been added.
Various vintage glass doors and elegant wooden furnishings by the sculptor Antonio Turri (Lugo 1872-1932) have been conserved inside the building, as well as pastels and frescoes on the main ceilings by the artist Domenico Pasi (Lugo 1892 - 1923).

     1. Biographical note
Francesco Baracca was born on the 9th of May 1888 by Paolina Biancoli and Enrico Baracca. As a young boy he first attended the school of the Salesian Fathers in Lugo, then the Scolopi school in Badia Fiesolana, before finishing his studies at the Dante high school in Florence. After graduating from high school he enrolled at the Military School in Modena, where he remained for a couple of years.
In 1909 he attended the Cavalry School in Pinerolo, where he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant in July 1910 and assigned to the 1st Squadron of the “Piemonte Reale” Regiment stationed in Rome. In 1912 he took civil flying courses in Reims, where he gained his pilot's license. He felt a natural propensity and great enthusiasm for flying, as his letter to his father on the 5th of May 1912 shows. Francesco wrote : “[...] now I realise what a wonderful idea I have had, because aviation has progressed immensely, and will have a tremendous future.”
After attaining his civil aviation license, he went on to gain his military pilot's license and dedicated himself to perfecting his training. On the eve of the war, Baracca went to Paris, where he specialised in flying the new Nieuport fighter biplanes at Le Bourget airport.
Returning to Italy in July 1915, he carried out patrol flights and won his first victory on the 7th of April 1916 at the controls of a Nieuport, shooting down an Austrian two-seater Brandenburg C.I..
For his actions in war, he would receive a bronze medal, three silver medals, the Knight Grand Cross of the Military Order of Savoy, the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Crown of Belgium, and finally the Gold Medal for Military Valour.
In the spring of 1917 he was put at the command of the 91st Squadron, a specially formed unit which brought together the best pilots of the Italian air force, and which was soon named the “Squadron of Aces” thanks to its many victories in combat.
On the 15th of June 1918, during the last Austro-Hungarian offensive, he won his 34th and last victory over San Biagio di Collalta, in the province of Treviso. Four days later, on the 19th of June 1918, Francesco Baracca lost his life during a low-flying machine-gunning action over Montello. On the 24th of June, his body was discovered almost by chance, next to the remains of his aircraft, by the artillery officer Ambrogio Gobbi, who was immediately joined by the lieutenants Ranza and Osnago, companions of the ace of the 91st Squadron, who were looking for their commander together with the journalist Garinei.
The funeral ceremony in honour of Francesco Baracca took place on the 26th of June in Quinto di Treviso: the funeral eulogy was read by Gabriele D’Annunzio. On the 28th of June the coffin reached Lugo in the late evening and the funeral carried out on the 30th of June before an enormous crowd.

     2. The museum
Established by the municipality of Lugo in 1926 and located in a room at the entrance of the Estense fortress until 1990, the Francesco Baracca museum was transferred to the birth house of the Italian aviation pioneer in 1993, in keeping with the wishes expressed in the will of his father, the count Enrico.
From June 1993 to April 1999, the Museum, which works closely with the “Friends of the Baracca Museum” association, housed a first section on the ground floor only, with the aeroplane and various mementoes. The works, which began in 1999, allowed a consolidation of the building, particularly the roof and the façade. The architectural barriers were pulled down and a lift put in to connect the three floors of the building, which was rebuilt in Liberty style at the beginning of the twentieth century. These works, which required the building to close for two years, doubled the exhibition area of the Museum, which was finally able to house a large number of mementoes, furnishings and documents, and provide suitable facilities for a rich cultural heritage, making various materials available to the public which had never been exhibited before.
The acquisition of the final floor, in 2006, allowed all the relics on Francesco Baracca to be included in the exhibition.
The Museum is the starting point of a city tour which includes the Monument, designed and completed in 1936 by the Faenza sculptor Domenico Rambelli, declared one of the best expressions of twentieth century Italian sculpture, and the Burial Chapel, decorated by the artist Roberto Sella of Lugo, located in the town cemetery, inside which you can admire the majestic sarcophagus cast using the bronze of the Austrian cannons from the Kras region.

     3. Ticket office and bookshop
There are two display cases in this room; one displays a selection of publications on Francesco Baracca, from the First World War to today, while the other shows images of him, donated by the Visani family.
A German-built engine from an aeroplane shot down by Francesco Baracca stands proudly in one corner. The propulsor still has part of the wooden propeller attached, broken in the violent impact with the ground.

     4. The lobby
Currently exhibited in the lobby is a Ferrari F399 whichhhhh competed in the Formula 1 Championship in 1999, winning six victories in the hands of Michael Schumacher, Eddie Irvine and Mika Salo, who stood in for the German driver for six races when Schumacher was injured. The single-seater is a loan from the Galleria Ferrari museum in Maranello, the result of a collaboration between the two museums. The origins of the link between the Rampant Horse and Ferrari is told by the constructor himself, and dates back to 1923, when Ferrari – still only a driver – won the first Savio Circuit at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo. Paolina de’ Biancoli, the mother of Francesco Baracca, told him: “Ferrari, put my son's rampant horse on your cars. It will bring you good luck.” Years later Ferrari wrote “I still have the photograph of Baracca, with the dedication of his parents with which they granted me the emblem. The horse was and has remained black; I added the canary yellow background – the colour of Modena”.
The SPAD Room, the highlight of the Museum, is opposite the book shop.

     5. The SPAD Room
The room is fitted out to evoke the idea of flight. The SPAD VII, with registration number S 2489, was built by the Blériot company in 1917 and was used by the 91st Squadron between the end of 1917 and the beginning of 1918, a period which coincides with its use by the ace, although no archive document is currently able to confirm or exclude its effective use by Francesco Baracca. What is certain is that this fighter plane was the personal aircraft of the lieutenant Eduardo Alfredo Olivero from the end of the summer of 1918 to the spring of the following year, when it was exhibited at an air show in Taliedo. It was then donated to Baracca's town of birth and exhibited here in a room of the fortress.
An initial series of restoration works were carried out at the end of the Sixties by air force technicians, followed by further works in 1990, carried out by the Turin section of the Friends of Historic Aircraft group, in Italian Gruppo Amici Velivolo Storici, or GAVS. The original fabric lining was removed during the initial restoration works, but is conserved in the museum storerooms.

     6. The courtyard
Here you can admire an Aeritalia G. 91Y donated by the Italian Air Force, thus bringing two different eras of flight together under one roof. The aircraft was used by the “5th Stormo di Cervia” squadron, and made its last flight in 1993.
Under the portico on the right is one of the two General Electric J85-GE-13A engines which powered the plane.

     7. The Uniform Room
This vast room, which looks out over the road on one side and the courtyard on the other, displays various uniforms worn by Francesco Baracca, and one which belonged to an Austrian pilot, donated to the Museum by the Viennese collector Johannes Walenta. As well as honouring all the pilots of the First World War, regardless of their nationality, the room shows Europe's fall from the splendour of the Belle Epoque to the horror of the war, with the glittering uniforms which fade in the greyness of combat equipment.
The place of honour in one of the display cases is occupied by a wooden panel which Francesco Baracca had made, bearing the emblem he chose – as he writes in one of his letters - in honour of the “Piedmont Cavalry” Regiment he had once belonged to.
The black Rampant Horse did not appear on the first aircraft flown by the ace, making its debut on his Nieuport 17 in the spring of 1917, then on the SPAD VII and XIII.
On Baracca's death, the Rampant Horse, his personal emblem, would have disappeared had it not been for his commander, Amedeo d’Aosta, who decided to adopt it as the emblem of the 4th Stormo squadron of the then-Italian Royal Air Force. The Rampant Horse still flies with the air force today.

     8. The bedroom
The room in which Francesco Baracca slept displays the original furniture and furnishings donated by the family; the uniform trousers and boots are also originals. Also on display is the cello played by Baracca when he was a boy, and a rough wooden cross brought from Montello, which originally marked the exact spot where his body was found.

     9. The Room of Honours
On the left, in one of the first display cases, are medals and diplomas awarded to Francesco Baracca, including the Gold Medal for Military Valour, the highest Italian decoration for acts of valour, while a second case holds various relics. The first shelf holds various personal items, including a singed coin purse recovered from Montello, a silk shoe embroidered with the military pilot's badge and the Haussmann watch won in an equestrian competition before the war, with the hands stopped at his time of death. The lower shelf displays other mementoes, including the ribbons from the flower wreaths brought in tribute to the pilot during his funeral or during ceremonies in the following years. Note those from the tenor Caruso, and from the French air force squadron stationed in Venice. A case in the centre of the room contains the Sword of Honour, donated to Baracca by the town of Lugo, while the painting Portrait of Francesco Baracca in cavalry uniform by Bedeschi from 1919 is on the wall opposite the door.

     10. The room of the 91st Squadron
This room is dedicated to Baracca's companions. Especially interesting are the relics displayed in the cases, while on the right-hand wall, above a series of panels describing the profiles of various aircraft of the squadron, are the wing struts of a Brandenburg C.I., shot down by Pier Ruggero Piccio, friend and superior of Baracca. Beside the door are the biographies of some of the pilots who served in the squadron, while a blown-up photograph on the end wall, probably taken in April 1918 on the airfield in Padua, shows Baracca and the other pilots in front of a SPAD XIII. On the left of the photograph is the reproduction of a geographical map of the period showing the areas where the Italian troops fought during the First World War.

     11. The Room of the Funeral Honours
This room displays images and posters from the funeral of the pilot. Worthy of note is the painting by Lucio Benini from 1918, called Arrival in Lugo of the body of Francesco Baracca.

     12. The second floor
This floor is dedicated to the life of Francesco Baracca, with a series of panels describing various key events. The panels take you along the walls from right to left, continuing in the Room of the Rampant Horse before returning to the first room. There are various relics on display relative to the life and military career of Francesco Baracca.

     13. The Room of the Rampant Horse
The first display case on the right holds a exercisebook and a drawing by the future ace, followed by part of a propeller from an Austrian aircraft which was shot down, and a long display case showing further items linked to Baracca's victories. The tour continues by turning right into the Room of the Rampant Horse, which owes its name to the panel showing a reproduction of the original in cloth of the emblem of the Rampant Horse from a SPAD and conserved by the X Fighter Group of the air force.
Various weapons from planes which were shot down are arranged along the walls; of particular note are the rudder and a fuselage panel complete with registration number of the Brandenburg C.I 61.57, which was shot down on the 7th of April 1916 in the first aerial combat victory of Baracca and the entire Italian air force.
When you have finished in this room return to the Piedmont Cavalry Room, where the tour continues, with a number of display cases holding various objects from the aeroplane in which Baracca lost his life, including the cushion from the pilot's seat, donated by Mr. Sciascia of Mantua, the rear-view mirror and telescopic sight, to name just a few.

     14. The War Memoirs Room (curated by the Isonzo History Group of Gorizia)
This room brings together objects removed from enemy soldiers, a practice common even among the Italian troops. Among the pilots of the 91st squadron under Francesco Baracca this activity was fairly widespread, as shown by the many findings kept here in the museum. Here you can admire the re-creation of a trench with the equipment given to the Austrian infantry and artillery, but also to the Italian troops: helmets, rifles, machine guns, accessories, unusual weapons and the remains of bullets. They are the memory of a grim period, lived through by those who dominated the trenches from above, trenches populated by thousands of enemy soldiers.

     15. The Legend of Baracca
In the lobby, take a seat on the bench to listen to the final text dedicated to the legend of Francesco Baracca. (PAUSE)
Many authors stress the importance of the role but above all the legend of the pilot within the context of the First World War, suggesting different ways of looking at the figure of Baracca.
Even during the war, the name of Baracca was already very well-known. Numerous books, articles and booklets have been published about him, without counting the space reserved for him in the various general histories of aviation and the First World War, while school textbooks, which aim to capture the imagination of children and young people, never fail to mention his name.

Most of the texts can be divided into two main types. On one hand we have the picture of a “knight of the air”, one who views aerial combat as duels between gentlemen, and who harbours great enthusiasm for these battles in the sky, considering them a ‘spectacle’, a sporting contest with “glory” as the ultimate goal.
On the other hand we have a more warrior-like figure, showing no compassion towards the enemy he has shot down, one who takes on the characteristics of the superhuman hero, a perfect war machine, completely absorbed in carrying out his “sacred duty”.

The image which tends to prevail today, however, is that of an adventurous man, sensitive to the development of technology and modernity. According to various modern interpretations, Baracca was not so much inspired by the idea of the hero of the air, pure and resolute, as much as by the “champion of success”.

Analysis of the diary and letters sent to the family shows the figure of a young pilot aware of his ‘status’ of “knight of the skies”; one who belongs to a kind of supranational élite, which “has the fortune in life, but especially after death, to embody the spirit of flying and aerial warfare, combining daring and chivalrous conquest, the most advanced technology, and the most resolute spirit of adventure in a rare synthesis.”
But this legend, which in the twentieth century would come together admirably and inseparably with that of another great ‘pioneer’, Enzo Ferrari, has its roots as far back as the “Manifesto of Futurism” of 1909, when Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, choosing the aeroplane as a symbol of modernity, wrote:
“We will sing [...] the gliding flight of the aeroplanes, its propellor fluttering like a flag in the wind, seeming to applaud like an enthusiastic crowd”.

An exaltation of the audacity and domination of man over the ‘machine’, but also a sense of the challenge and dimension of a dream, the latter clearly expressed by Baracca himself in a letter to his father, dating back to the French period: “[...] It was a wonderful daydream, seeing myself flying under the trees, over the roads and the countryside...”.