Birthplace of Gabriele D'Annunzio Museum

History

The 18th-century building, owned by the D'Annunzio family since the 19th century, was declared a national monument in 1927.

In 1926, Gabriele D'Annunzio commissioned Antonino Liberi to restore the house to commemorate his mother, Luisa De Benedictis, who died there in 1917.

Liberi worked on the renovation until 1928, freeing the ground floor from shops and preserving the loggia, courtyard, well, stables, and storage rooms. D'Annunzio later expressed dissatisfaction with the renovations, particularly the leveling of the three steps that led to the master bedroom, which he revered as "Three altar steps" in Notturno. Subsequently, the poet entrusted the restoration to Giancarlo Maroni, achieving complete restoration only in 1933.

In the same year, the building, which had been under the care of custodian Marietta Camerlengo, was acquired by the Italian State, which immediately began restoration and arrangement works that were completed in 1938.

However, the building suffered significant damage during the World War II bombings; new interventions on the house were completed in 1949.

A first museum exhibition was established in 1963 by the "D'Annunzio Foundation" for the exhibition titled "Abruzzo in the Life and Work of G. D'Annunzio," and preserved until 1993, when a new exhibition path was organized.

Interior

The museum, set up on the first floor of the birthplace of Gabriele D'Annunzio, consists of nine rooms and houses furnishings, period furniture, and objects belonging to the writer and his family.

The room is dedicated to D'Annunzio's childhood and contains some educational panels with photographs and quotes from his works, as well as his high school diploma from the Royal Convitto Cicognini of Prato (1881), the decree appointing Francesco Paolo Rapagnetta-D'Annunzio as Mayor for the three-year period 1879–1881, and the certificate of honorary citizenship to D'Annunzio from the Municipality of Chieti on the occasion of the first theatrical performance of "La Figlia di Iorio" (1904).

This room corresponds to the living room of the house.

It exhibits two lithographs depicting "Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Italy" and "Giuseppe Garibaldi in Marsala", the first by Pietro Barabino and the second by Roberto Focosi; portraits of the adoptive parents of Francesco Paolo Rapagnetta-D'Annunzio ("Anna Giuseppa Lolli" and "Antonio D'Annunzio") and the painting The Rape of Proserpina, all by an anonymous artist of the 19th century.

This was the study of Francesco Paolo Rapagnetta-D'Annunzio and contains his childhood portrait by an anonymous artist of the 19th century.

The room also hosts a musical lectern used by his brother Antonio, a Japanese plate from the 19th century depicting a landscape with figures, two lithographs depicting Torquato Tasso in the Hospital of Sant'Anna in Ferrara and Torquato Tasso at the Court of France by Ferdinando de Mattheis, two prints with St. Sebastian and St. John the Baptist, and a painting depicting The Flight of Aeneas from Burning Troy, by an anonymous artist of the 19th century.

This was the bedroom of Gabriele and his brother Antonio.

It contains two 19th-century beds, above which are two paintings (St. Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori and The Immaculate Madonna). There is also a piece of furniture with a raised and mirrored door from the 18th century and a wooden prie-dieu from the 19th century, both belonging to the D'Annunzio family. On the wall is a Christ Carrying the Cross on glass. …