The De Henriquez museum represents one of the major Italian museum attractions in the sector. The message delivered to history by its founder is a letter H that incorporates the initial of the surname, and is crossed by a band of bright colors, alluding to the flag of peace. The de Henriquez collection, owned by the Municipality since 1983, exhibited in the museum, is composed of: 15,000 inventoried objects, of which 2800 weapons, 24,000 photographs, 287 diaries (38,000 pages), 12,000 books, 2,600 posters and flyers, 500 prints, 470 geographical and topographical maps, 30 archival collections, 290 musical documents, 150 paintings, a collection of films (250 cinematographic documents kept at the Istituto Luce in Rome), and documents relating to both the first and second world war as well as some unique and extraordinary pieces.
The permanent exhibition entitled “1914-1918 The Funeral of Peace” is dedicated to the history of the First World War and starts from the hearse of the Zimolo company in Trieste (early 1900s), of the same type as those that on 2 July 1914 transported the body of Archduke Francesco Ferdinando, nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph I and heir to the throne of the Habsburgs, and that of his wife Duchess Sofia Chotek from the Piazza Grande (now Unit) to the southern station of Trieste.
A large part of the space is attributed to the large guns and to the rotated vehicles relating to the period and accompanied by explanatory texts. A path rich in history through the sections dedicated to Propaganda, the Trench, the Industrial War, up to the sectors of the defeat of Caporetto, where one of the saddest pages of Italian history is illustrated, and the Last Front where they are told the final stages of the conflict. An interesting parenthesis on “1914-1918 Trieste at war” outlines the history and fate of the city from the period immediately preceding the conflagration to the end of the war.
Contains the largest collection of small, medium and large weapons in Italy.
Diego de Henriquez was born in Trieste on February 20, 1909, from an early age he devoted himself with passion to collecting objects of the most varied nature, but the beginning of the great war collection began in 1941, when called to arms he was authorized by his superiors to recover ” war prey “. He began to set up a war museum, at the same time he created a newspaper of the 25th sector, compiled a guide relating to the same sector and set up a photographic laboratory. After 1945, being a skilled diplomat, he managed with the authorities of the various occupying troops in the territory, to obtain other military material which increased his already large collection.