THE INTERNATIONAL RED

CROSS MUSEUM
Via Garibaldi, 50 • 46043 Castiglione delle Stiviere
(Mantova) • Italia
Tel. 0376 638505
info@micr.it • www.micr.it
 A mongst
the
grand
buildings
decorating
the charming
town of
Castiglione
delle Stiviere, in the province
of Mantua (10 km from Lake
Garda), there is a palace
which recalls one of the most
significant pages in the history
of human solidarity and
international human rights.
It is the eighteenth-century
The Trulzi-Longhi
noble palace Triulzi-Longhi, in
Building, center of
which, thanks to the initiative
the Museum.
of Enzo Boletti, in 1959 the
International Museum of the
Red Cross has been installed,
to witness that one hundred
years earlier, in Castiglione
delle Stiviere the idea of what
today is the most important
humanitarian organization
in the world found its
origins thanks to the
bright sensibility of a
young businessman from
Geneva, Henry Dunant.
This Museum includes
not only documents,
surgical instruments,
litters and camp
equipment
witnessing past
and present
activities of the
Red Cross in
the World, but a
message is delivered as weil.
The message of solidarity and
brotherhood that the people
from Castiglione conveyed
unknowingly to whom founded
the great Organization, after
witnessing the excruciating
human slaughter following the
battle of Solferino in 1859.

A panoramic view of Castiglione delle

Stiviere and the Cathedral.
Henry Dunant
1859: “La popolana” – work of the
sculptor Giuseppe Brigoni –
Castiglione-Solferino symbol of the generosity of
the women of Castiglione.
The idea for
the Red Cross is born

F rom the night of 24

June 1859, a few hours
following the furious
battle that confronted
the French-Italian and
the Hapsburg armies, the
people from Castiglione saw
thousands of wounded soldiers
coming to town from all parts.
Before the heart-breaking view
of 9000 mutilated bodies, the
people from Castiglione, and
especially the women, started
to assist the wounded men,
piously accepting “human”
pain beyond banners, uniforms
and incomprehensible
languages. Soon streets,
squares, churches and homes
became improvised aiding
posts. As Dunant himself
described later in the book that
moved the world, A memory
from Solferino, everybody
was put to work: elderly and
children, and the girls did
not hesitate to tear up their
wedding trousseaus sheets
to make bandages for the
wounded.

Transporting
the wounded from
Solferino to Castiglione,
in a drawing
by Pontremoli.
Red Cross surgical instruments
and first aid equipment
from different periods.
H enry Dunant from
Geneva had come to
Castiglione to ask
Napoleon for concessions
for his business in Algeria: he
found himself overwhelmed by
the tragedy and by that wave
of spontaneous generosity
and thus tried to organize with
the local curate, don Lorenzo
Barzizza, a team of improvised,
but also generous and tireless
team of helpers and he himself
rolled up his sleeves and forgot
the reason for his presence
in Castiglione. One idea
penetrated that sensitive soul,
which was already moulded
in the ideals of universal
brotherhood: unknowingly, the
people from Castiglione were
responsible for its emergence:
the idea of the International
Red Cross, which would be
founded in Geneva a few years
later (1863) and that, in 2017,
Don Lorenzo now counts 191 Nations inside
Barzizza, who the International Movement
together of the Red Cross and Red
with Henry Crescent.
Dunant aided the
wounded “... the women of Castiglione,
at Solferino. upon seeing that I made
no distinctions between
nationalities, followed my
example showing the same
good-will to all these men from
such different origins and who
are all strangers to them.
“All brothers” they repeat with
compassion.
Honour to these compassionate
women, to these girls
of Castiglione!...
(from the manuscript of the
book by Henry Dunant: “A
memory
of Solferino”).
 In some rooms of the Museum,
objects and photographic
documentation that testify
to the intervention
of the Red Cross
in aid of populations threatened
by war and by poverty.
 The development of a great idea
The signatories of the First
Geneva Convention in1864.
Documents that attest
to the Nobel Peace Prizes
first received by Dunant
in 1901 and subsequently
received by the International
Movement of the Red Cross.
Every year, in the last week
of June, with a torchlight
procession “from Solferino
to Castiglione” volunteers
and sympathizers from all over
the world remember
and celebrate the idea
of the great Association.
“W ould it not be
possible, in
times of peace
and tranquillity, to establish
a first aid society formed
of generous and suitably
qualified volunteers to assist
the wounded in times of war?”
On 22nd August 1864 this far-
sighted idea, arising from Henry
Dunant’s moving experience in Italy
in 1859, became reality with the
drawing up of the “First Geneva
Convention”, an agreement in
which twelve Nations undersigned
the first ten articles giving origin
to International Human Rights.
In this context the Red Cross on a
white background, inspired by the
Swiss flag, was recognised as an
international symbol of neutrality,
aid and protection during war-
times.
A few years later other Nations
undersigned the Geneva
Convention and the Cross was
backed up by the Red Crescent,
which with the same spirit and the
same objectives was extended to
Muslim countries.
Today the symbols of the Red
Cross and Red Crescent epitomize
the ideals of brotherhood and
solidarity of over 100 million
members and accompany the
effort of tens of thousands of
volunteers world-wide.
Committed with great competence
to bringing help and support to
the weak in extreme conditions
such as war and natural disasters,
the Red Cross is present wherever
health, safety, civil rights and
human dignity are threatened or
precarious.
Foto, grafica e comunicazione: IRIDE (VR) - www.studioiride.it

A Museum for the young

A
n emotional encounter with history, discovering what lies behind the
objects, the images and documents that testify to the great events of
the past, tracking down the feelings, the ideas, the projects of men as
we are. This is the experience that the International Museum of the Red cross
proposes to the young (but not only) along the path “The birth of an idea
which never before existed”. It follows an ideal path, like scenes from a theater,
allowing one to relive the experience of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red
Cross as protagonist. With the aid of thematic captions and scenic elements
that bring back the past and invite us to discuss and closer examine , from room
to room, as one moves towards the “space of present and future”, a laboratory
that under the banner of creativeness and dialogue, allows youth to cast a bridge
towards its contemporaries the whole world over.

HOW TO REACH THE MUSEUM

The Museum is situated in the
centre of Castiglione delle Stiviere,
an attractive little town located
in the Morainic Hills of
Garda. It is easily reached
either from the Sirmione or
Desenzano exits on the A4
motorway (from Milan to Venice),
or from the State Highway 236
(Brescia to Mantova).

OPENING HOURS
April - October: 9 - 12 and 15 - 18
November - March: 9 - 12 and 14 - 17
Closed on Mondays except for public holidays.

Guided tours for school groups and tourists organised subject to booking.
On request: visits and itineraries to the sites of the Battle of Solferino,
the Red Cross Memorial, monuments and places of historical, artistic and natural interest.

THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS MUSEUM

Via Garibaldi, 50 • 46043 Castiglione delle Stiviere (Mantova) • Italia
Tel. 0376 638505 • info@micr.it • www.micr.it