For those who love the Tricolor and all that it has represented in the modern history of our country, Reggio Emilia will become a mandatory destination.
In particular, a visit to the Tricolor Room and the annex Tricolor Museum is absolutely necessary for discovering the true spirit of the city, a rebellious side that fought to rid itself of ancient servitude and to gain control of its future, a future of freedom and equality.
The Italian flag was created in Reggio Emilia on
January 7, 1797. That day, representatives from the four cities of Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna and Ferrara met in a Congress proposed by Giuseppe Compagnoni, and they officially adopted the red, white and green tricolor as the national banner of the Cispadane Republic, the new state created under the protection of the French army.
This historic meeting took place inside the
Municipal Palace, in the great room with splendid neoclassical architecture, which was built between 1772 and 1787, following a plan by Lodovico Bolognini, to house the general archives of the Duchy.
Later the great room would be named the Congress Room and then the
Tricolor Room. Now it is the headquarters of the Municipal Board and of the most important civil events of the city.
Near the historic Room, the Tricolor Museum documents with innovative historiographic criteria the historical and political context in which the Italian flag came to be. Along with historic documents, there are also modern audio-visual instruments which make reading the documents easier.
The exhibition on the Risorgimento in Italy has two parallel themes: the history of the national flag, from its origins to the independence and unification of the country, and the history of the political happenings in Reggio Emilia, from the creation of the Reggiana
Republic in 1796 to the documentation of the aid offered by Reggio Emilia's people in the battle for national liberation.
"Reggio Emilia today is not only the Capitol of the Tricolor, but also a vital central part – through conviction and passion – of the effort to reinforce and re-launch the historic heritage of national Unity". (G. Napolitano – January 7, 2011 – during the 150
th celebration of Italy's Unification).