PREDAPPIO , Italy, April 23 (UPI) -- A museum dedicated to the history of fascism will be created in Predappio, Italy, the birthplace of dictator Benito Mussolini, Mayor Giorgio Frassineti announced.
The northern Italian city, known for neo-fascist pilgrimages, already maintains the home in which Mussolini was born, as well as the mausoleum where he is buried. The museum will be located in the now-abandoned Casa del Fascio, built in the 1930s as part of an urban renewal program, to accommodate visitors and to glorify Mussolini.
Mussolini led Italy from 1922 until his death in 1943 and created the National Fascist Party. Frassineti called the plans “a contribution to knowledge of a fundamental piece of our history. Predappio would become a place for reflection, thereby removing it (the study of fascism) from the hands of those who use it improperly.”
Many visitors are fascist sympathizers, and others arrive to come to terms with Italy’s fascist era. Frassineti, of the center-left Democratic Party, is running for re-election on May 25.
