International Naval Museum of Imperia
Piazza Duomo, 11 - 18100 IMPERIA - ITALY - Tel. n. 0183/651541
Tax
Code: 91005290084
Opening hours:
Winter:
Tuesday 09:00 - 11:00 (for schools) - Wednesday 15.30 - 19:30
Saturday 16.30 - 19:30
Summer: Wednesday 21:00
- 23:00 - Saturday 21:00 - 23:00
Possibility of extra
openings (to be previously arranged over the telephone) for
tourist groups and organisations.
Access to the museum
is indicated by appropriate road signs. Coaches may be parked
in the front square.
The International
Naval Museum of Imperia is a recent institution (it was founded
in 1980) and in a few years it has made itself known to the
world for the rapidity and soundness of its continuous development,
the methodology of its research and the competent valorisation
of its material.
Its Founder and first Supervisor
was Captain Flavio Serafini, who had in fact managed
to catalyse around this syngular and valuable initiative,
not only the most authoritative technicians and collaborators
but also the enthusiasm of many passionate proselytes, collectors
and researchers of marine history and related data.
The
incredible result has been the safeguard of a unique and
vast inheritance of material related to Ligurian and National
marine traditions that, otherwise, would have been inexorably
lost in the course of a few years.
The daily consolidation
of this original structure - in a country that has submerged
its own naval vestiges in negligence and indifference, and
only in Europe, has not been able to maintain a ‘ship
museum’ - is the clear evidence of what more can be
carried out in this particular sector of history, culture
and customs.
And it could not have been otherwise,
considering the stimulus of our highly qualified voluntary
personnel (ex marine officials, Merchant Navy captains, Nautical
teachers, designers, divers, Italian and foreign scholars,
all under a single association : "Friends of the Naval Museum
Association"), in collaboration with universities, supervisors,
public and private organisations, schools, etc. This collective
participation is the best guaranty of continuity as the Museum
starts to become one of the most qualified and interesting
in this field, gathering everywhere consent and collaboration
and assuming the role of a cultural instrument at the service
of the community, meant to conserve, enhance and divulge
this historical, ethnographic and documental inheritance.
Despite the temporary lack of available premises,
on the whole the exhibition rooms, although sometimes crammed
with show-cases, are displayed with a certain amount of dignity
and with a well-calculated explanatory presentation within
the limits consented by the heterogeneity of the material.
Praise goes to the Civic Administration who has
put into force certain measures for a better future adaptability
of the Museum to cultural needs (inclusion and incorporation
within the Polyvalent Centre of Culture).
SECTION IN PREPARATION: Photographic study, malacology, fishing, underwater archaeology