Gabriele d'Annunzio's childhood home

Gabriele d'Annunzio's childhood home is on the main street of the ancient city of Pescara, and it was contained in a military fortress which was demolished when the poet was a child.
It was declared National Monument in 1927 with a Mussolini's decree, urged by d'Annunzio himself to ensure his childhood home under State protection. In 1958 the building became State Propriety and subsequently it was put under the protection of Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.

The building was restored and reinforced many times, but the original shape of a typical XIX century middle-class house is almost preserved. On the ground floor there is a little courtyard with a little pit made of bricks.
Gabriele d'Annunzio was born in this house on March 12, 1863.

He lived there until he was eleven when he moved to Prato to carry on with his studies. He sometimes returned to Abruzzo to visit his mother, who had remained alone in the house.
The visit of the museum starts on the first ground of the building, in a journey through the first five rooms that immerse the visitor in a XIX century's home atmosphere, with period fittings, furnishings and paintings: a casket of memories and living from Poet's childhood. The guide is the same poet, who tells visitors about his memories through panels quoting passages from Notturno.

Those writings give to visitors the emotions, the affection and the nostalgia for the childhood years with his whole family and his friends and companions.

The welcome rooms were embellished with tempera decorations on the vaults, made by artists from the Marche in the middle of 1800, that are the most ancient pictorial decorations exhisting in the city and are preserved completely. They represents neoclassical themes with vegetable candelabra motifs, cupid's figures and fantastic animals.

In the second section of the Museum we find the poet's wardrobe, a slice of fashion from those years which he followed in an original way. The visitor can admire the red coat worn during hunting or horse-racing and the original golden sandals worn during the summer. In the next room there are precious first editions of his works, illustrated with xylographs.

It follows the disturbing setting up with the moulding of poet's hand and face, realised strictly on his corpse just after his death by his friend the scultor Arrigo Minerbi, the night of March 1, 1938. Lastly in the room of the soldier Poet room we find war relics, period photos, illustrative panels of war exploits and general uniforms.

In this museum are hosted temporary exhibitions, in the expositive rooms on the ground floor. Nowadays on the first floor are exposed works by artists from Abruzzo of 1800 and 1900 coming from the National Museum of L’Aquila: among all stands out I Morticelli a famous painting by Francesco Paolo Michetti.

Map: Gabriele d'Annunzio's childhood home