The bombing of the Scuola Grande di San Marco, which at the time was the Civilian Hospital, struck public opinion in Venice and beyond. The newspapers amplified what was almost certainly a hasty action or a misguided assessment of the bomb’s trajectory, as had happened in other cases in the city. In a long war, however, fought not only with rifles and guns, but also with weapons of propaganda, this event represented a tangible sign of the enemy’s cruelty: not even a place of merciful care and succour had been spared.
It is this thread of propaganda that weaves the tale of this exhibition and intertwines with that of history. The war fought in the air, the state of the aviation, the artillery and anti-aircraft artillery, together with the bombings of the Hospital are the stages in this narrative.
The exhibition continues on the floor above in the Sala del Capitolo, treatment ward of patients in 1917, which was damaged from the bombing and where we are now remembering those events.