Museum of the Shoah and the twentieth century

The Museum of the Twentieth Century and the Shoah was born in the rooms of the Old Town Hall, a sixteenth-century structure enlarged and used as a municipal headquarters in the second half of the nineteenth century. The building, as a former municipal house, immediately seemed the right place to host the museum because its rooms have been the protagonists of numerous pages of history: political life of the 20th century, creation of documents for soldiers and departing emigrants in the world, reception of Jewish internees and falsification of documents to save them from the Shoah, militarization of the country and hospitality of refugees during the Second World War, the referendum for the Republic, revolts of the Reverse Strike, reconstruction.

In 1877 the city administration, led by mayor Carlo Coletti, decided to purchase a building owned by Fortunata Massa to be used as a new municipal house. The price of the property, located in via Annunziata, is set at 10,000 lire, of which 2,500 to be paid upon signing and the remainder to be paid in installments over four years. The payment of the last installment was decided in March 1883. The total expense would be 11,500 lire, including interest.

In 1924 the prefectural commissioner decided to make a room in the town hall available to the National Fascist Party: “Considering that since it is an institution for the protection of the nation its functioning must be facilitated, and therefore this Administration can grant the use of a room of the Town Hall. Resolves to grant the Fascio section of this Municipality the use of the Town Hall room used for the Conciliation office for its meetings”. This is the current Room 2 dedicated to Sandona residents abroad.

Two years later, the prefectural commissioner Giacinto Tempesta commissioned the artist Salvatore Palumbo to paint some rooms and decorate the waiting room. In 1931 the mayor Guido Massa proposed the sale of the town hall to build a new one, inside the school building, then in the planning phase. The idea did not materialize due to some difficulties in the project. In 1936 the mayor attempted to purchase Palazzo Tempesta, in via Piave. The proposal will be shelved due to the high costs and the loan taken out for the construction of the school building. Part of the paintings created by Palombo are still visible next to Room 4.

On 11 May 1944 four corps of the Allied army launched Operation Diadem by attacking the Gustav Line from Cassino to the Tyrrhenian Sea. The attack is powerful and continues for days, without sparing the rear and the town of San Donato. Podestà Marini writes to the head of the Province: “Yesterday 15 May, around 11.30 am, a cannon shot exploded in the Municipal House, causing the destruction of the floor above the municipal offices and of the glass and shutters of part of the offices themselves. Fortunately, no casualties have been reported.”

After the war the palace was renovated: the war damage was repaired and the interiors modernised. On May 7, 1984, San Donato was the epicenter of a 5.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Central Italy. Due to the damage, the town hall was permanently moved to another location. The restoration lasts several months. In 1988 the municipal administration led by Silvio Antonellis designated it as a youth centre. Since 1997 the rooms have hosted contemporary art exhibitions with authors of international importance. In 2022 it becomes the Museum of the Twentieth Century and the Shoah.