– Castiglione delle Stiviere
International Red Cross Museum
The Palazzo Triuzzi Longhi, built at the end of the 18th century, belonged to a noble family from Castiglione who in 1959, on the initiative of Enzo Boletti, hosted the International Museum of the Red Cross.
A visit to the Museum allows you to experience the journey of this great international organisation, from its birth – with the seven fundamental principles – to its evolution, with particular attention to today’s activities, carried out in various parts of the world.
In its rooms there is in fact a large collection of equipment, emergency vehicles, documents and various testimonies from the extraordinary rescue work provided by the women of Castiglione to the wounded in the Battle of Solferino and San Martino in 1859, which inspired Henry Dunant from Geneva to creation of the Red Cross, what is today the most important secular humanitarian association in the world. Many of the forty thousand wounded, transported to Castiglione delle Stiviere on 24 June 1859, were treated in the city, where the priest Don Lorenzo Barzizza coordinated the relief work, transforming churches, monuments and private homes into temporary hospitals.