War at your doorstep - Supporting communities discovering their local history via interactive technology

In the Great War (1914-1918), Italy fought the Austro-Hungarian army along its North-East border leaving that part of the Alps dotted with fortifications and trenches. A hundred years later, the remains on these sites allow us to rediscover the traces of those tragic events and a number of small museums preserve materials and images of a war that deeply marked the territory, the population and the landscape. In the Trentino area, these museums are part of the “Rete Trentino Grande Guerra”, a network led by the Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra (the Italian War History Museum, hereafter Museo della Guerra), one of the most important history museums in Italy with more than 60,000 visitors a year. The network supports cooperation and exchange between all of those with a passion for history and the memory of the Great War. The Museo displays an extended collection of weapons, uniforms, soldiers’ kits, photographs, propaganda material, paintings, and memorabilia; it also looks after a number of forts and trenches, some of which are today just archaeological remains. The Museo della Guerra has a strong educational mission with special events for schools and families (both indoors and outdoors) and supports history researchers, local authorities, cultural associations of volunteers and tourist guides who accompany visitors to the open-air sites related to the First World War in the Trentino area