Cold War Museum of Chiusaforte

Today, the building that once housed the canteen of the former Zucchi Barracks in Chiusaforte is home to the Cold War Museum, curated by the association Friuli Storia e Territorio.

The site itself is an important testimony to the militarization of Italy’s north-eastern border during the Cold War. The barracks were built in the 1960s to accommodate the military units assigned to the defence of this strategically important area and were decommissioned in the 1990s, when the threat of a Warsaw Pact invasion disappeared.

Unique of its kind in Italy, the museum offers visitors the opportunity to explore the military history of the second half of the twentieth century and to gain a deeper understanding of some of the key events of the Cold War.

The exhibition on the ground floor is dedicated to the Cividale Alpine Battalion, which was stationed at the barracks until its closure in 1995.

The first-floor exhibition is divided into several thematic sections. The first focuses on the redefinition of international borders following the Paris Peace Treaties, with particular attention to the history of the Free Territory of Trieste and Italy’s eastern border. The second section displays uniforms and equipment used by the armed forces of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

The following rooms are dedicated to the Italian Armed Forces. Visitors can view equipment used by various military branches, a reconstruction of a barracks dormitory, and a section devoted to military communications and NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) defence equipment. The exhibition concludes with a section dedicated to the extensive system of anti-invasion fortifications that remained active in Friuli Venezia Giulia until the 1990s, as well as the troops responsible for operating them in wartime. The display is enriched by the reconstruction of several rooms from a permanent fortification, complete with camouflage systems, sleeping quarters, storage areas and a machine-gun position.