The Story
The rescue operation

1940-1945: in the corner of the Montefeltro territory, which includes Urbino, Sassocorvaro and Carpegna, paintings and works of art from a number of Italian museums were collected and saved from the dangers of war. A safe shelter to guard these valuable treasures was needed, and the choice fell on the Fortress of Sassocorvaro. The whole rescue operation was entrusted to a young art curator from Urbino – Pasquale Rotondi. From June the 6th 1940, the Fortress hosted a great number of masterpieces coming from the Marches Region; from October the 16th 1940, treasures from the Venice Museums, the Galleries and Ca’ d’Oro were also gathered and were guarded until the end of the war - a period of 5 years, 3 months and 8 days..

› Montefeltro between war and arts

In the period directly before Italy’s entrance into the war, the Government activated an emergency plan to protect the immense national art heritage. Drawing on considerable resources, a great number of protection tasks were completed, so that with Italy’s entrance into the war on the 10th of June 1940, the majority of monuments, such as churches and buildings, were virtually invulnerable. To save movable works of art, it was suggested that they be put in a safe place far away from military targets. As for the Marches, the rescue operation was entrusted to P. Rotondi; he was to find a safe shelter for the famous paintings by Piero della Francesca and Paolo Uccello, Raffaello and Tiziano, just to name a few. With the beginning of the war, this project resulted in a much more arduous task than what had been foreseen.