The Don Giovanni Verità Civic Museum is housed in the house where Don Giovanni Verità (1807-1885), a well-known figure of patriotic priest of the Risorgimento, lived. He saved Giuseppe Garibaldi in August 1849, during the general’s historic escape to Romagna, hosting him in his home.
On the ground floor, the Risorgimento section includes relics and documents related to the figure and life of Don Verità. The priest’s bedroom, furnished with Franciscan simplicity, can also be visited. On the upper floor where, in the original layout, the library was located, there is now an exhibition on the Resistance with documents, images and some weapons and relics related to the partisan activity in the Modigliana area.
In two rooms there are copies of prints with views of the town, from the Piancastelli Collection of the Municipal Library of Forlì and some famous works (‘Ritratto di Garibaldi’, ‘Ritratto di Don Verità’) by the painter Silvestro Lega, born in Modigliana in 1826 and died in 1895, who also took part in the events of the Risorgimento. In the basement of the building there is a small archaeological collection with finds of local origin ranging from the Bronze Age to the Roman period.
