Discovering an all-Italian story because the Museum of Shipbuilding in Monfalcone does not just show some of the finest naval and shipbuilding models built in the region, but also retraces the fundamental stages of work and local life from 1907 to the present day. The purpose of the exhibition is to make the visitor take a journey back in time, to listen to the history of the place, of Italy. While observing the models and the reconstructions, the timeline made of numbers and writings brings to mind some fundamental stages of our country, like the painful defeat of Caporetto, of 1917. Monfalcone was then re-occupied by the Austro-Hungarian troops, the building site destroyed by bombing and production, in part, moved to Budapest. The dates and episodes intertwine until the events of the company that gave birth to some of the most beautiful ships, perhaps the best of those times. Now only a memory, unknown to most but rich in history, ready to rise again in the rooms of the museum.
A meticulous collection that opens with the scale model of the "Giulio Cesare", the first Italian ocean liner built in the post-war period and launched in 1951.
- The exhibition is divided into 4 thematic areas and 14 sub-areas and continues through technology with interactive totems, virtual guides, 3D reconstructions and historical objects, dense with the life of the 20th century.
- The building. The museum is housed in the former workers' hotel built in 1920 to a design by engineer Dante Fornasir as paid accommodation for unmarried workers who worked at the shipyard and did not live in Monfalcone. A sort of "beehive" of over 18,000 square metres, 5 internal courtyards, comprising 700 rooms and 1300 windows, a canteen, a bar, a game room, a gymnastics room, a library, a cobbler's shop and a barber's shop. Heavily bombed during World War II, it underwent a restoration and redevelopment project in 2010 that aimed to maintain the charm of the imposing building while preserving its original features. The renovation involved the facades, the courtyards and the internal structure, which was transformed into a multifunctional venue.
- The company and the present day. The Cosulich family, owners of a shipping company, the Cosulich Società Triestina di Navigazione, inaugurated the Cantiere Navale Triestino in Monfalcone on 3 April 1908. In 1925 and 26, the shipyard launched the Saturnia and Vulcania, two transatlantic liners of excellence, the very first of those years. The company continued its activities without ever stopping, not even under the bombs of the First and Second World Wars even though it was forced to suspend and relocate production several times. Today, the Monfalcone shipyard is still an Italian excellence under the Fincantieri group; it builds high tonnage cruise ships. The factory covers an impressive 787,000 square metres (252,000 of which are covered). A year ago, the 'Carnival Horizon' was launched, the new ship destined for Carnival Cruise Line, a brand of the US group Carnival Corporation, the world's leading cruise ship operator. The exceptional achievements that have come out of the shipyard, from its birth to today, are also made tangible by two multimedia stations. There is also a space dedicated to naval design and the interior furnishings of ships produced at Monfalcone. The museum preserves a splendid embroidered panel, designed by Zoran Mušic, for the first-class lounge of the motor ship Augustus in 1951.
- Period images. However, it is also the period images and materials in the showcases that speak of this unique history: from the programme of the theatre's inaugural performance decorated by the splendid canvases painted by Vito Timmel to the 'terliz', the blue overalls of the workers, from the medallions and rings lost in the flight from the bombs dropped on the district by the Allies to the trophies won by the athletes of the clubs that were set up at the back of the shipyard.
