Museo Casa di Dante
Unione Fiorentina Museo Casa di Dante
- Unione Fiorentina Museo Casa di Dante
OUR SERVICES
- Multimedia set-up
- Exhibition Design
- Digital Strategy
- Digital Design
- Interaction Design
- Interactive Installation
- Graphic Design
- Content Production
- 3D Production
- Video Production
- Virtual Tour
A space dedicated to Dante, the man, fighter and poet; a technological relocation permitting visitors to identify with his art
In the new museum layout, the exhibition spaces are designed to provide an immersive and interactive experience.
Multimedia Set-up
ENTRANCE STAIRS – Getting to Know a Man to Understand an Era
Visitors are welcomed into Dante’s House by Dante himself, through an original illustration accompanied by a narrated voiceover displayed on a wall monitor. This exhibit introduces the dual narrative theme of the visit: Dante as a poet and father of the Italian language, but also as a man of his time.
This video installation serves a dual purpose: sparking visitors’ curiosity and providing essential context, preparing them for a journey of discovery about the poet and his Florence.
FIRST FLOOR
The first room offers a comprehensive introduction to the life of Dante Alighieri.
A backlit timeline, available in Italian and English, highlights key moments of Dante’s life alongside major historical events in Florence and medieval Europe, creating a contextual and synoptic overview.
On the opposite wall, a multimedia station with a touch monitor creates a kind of digital library, allowing visitors to explore three volumes: The Alighieri Family, The True Face of Dante, and Dante the Political Man. Each volume combines historical facts, anecdotes, and curiosities with iconographic images—some rarely seen—offering a rich and multifaceted portrait of Dante’s life.
At the far end of the room, a holographic display presents a 3D reconstruction of Dante’s possible appearance, offering an unprecedented visual encounter with the poet’s profile.
Room 2 – The Battle of Campaldino
This room features a rear-projection video that vividly recreates the Battle of Campaldino. The only physical artifact in the room is a historic dagger, discovered on the fields where this famous battle took place. This simple yet evocative object becomes the centerpiece of the narrative, serving as a tangible link to the history being told.
The video, created using a compelling mix of drone footage, actor portrayals, computer-generated illustrations, and original music, takes visitors on an emotional journey, bringing to life the events of this pivotal and brutal battle. At the end of the narrative, the dagger illuminates, creating a profound connection between the digital and physical worlds.
Room 3 – Arts and Economy in Florence
In this room, backlit panels showcase the coats of arms of Florence’s guilds. A touch table provides an in-depth exploration of economic themes, divided into different sections.
The “Guilds” section allows visitors to associate the coats of arms with their respective corporations using NFC technology. By placing a reproduction of a guild emblem on the table’s integrated reader, users activate quizzes for both adults and children, offering information about Florence’s trades and crafts.
Other sections, such as “Florentine Trade” and “The Gold Florin,” delve deeper into the city’s currency and medieval economy. The room also features a gaming application, Create Your Guild Emblem, where visitors can design their own modern emblem by selecting its shape, symbols, and motto.
Room 4a – Political Life in Florence
This room explores various aspects of medieval Florence’s social and political organization. A projection on a model of the city, enriched with evocative visuals, tells the story of Florence’s dynamic and rapidly ascending economy during Dante’s time.
Topics include the city’s main buildings, its division into districts (sestieri), and the influence of prominent families, whose power was also expressed through their iconic tower houses.
Room 4b – Dante’s Exile
A backlit panel traces Dante’s exile across a map of central Italy. Two touch monitors provide textual insights, helping visitors understand the contents of the displayed volumes.
These texts recount one of the most significant experiences of Dante’s life: his condemnation to exile from Florence, an event that profoundly shaped both his literary work and his personal life.
SECOND FLOOR
Room 5 – Dante, Father of the Italian Language
This room explores Dante’s literary and philosophical development, delving into the birth of the Italian vernacular, the key traits of the Dolce Stil Novo, and Dante’s connections with his contemporaries.
On the right wall, a large library displays various editions of the Divine Comedy, showcasing its numerous translations into different languages. This extensive collection highlights the universal reach of Dante’s masterpiece.
A proximity-activated wall monitor features Brunetto Latini, Dante’s mentor, who narrates the significance of his pupil’s contributions to the Italian language, emphasizing the enduring impact of Dante’s works on world literature.
Touch screens on the walls provide deeper insights into the literary context of Dante’s time, while an interactive touch table, designed to resemble Dante’s desk, allows visitors to engage directly with his texts.
The space is enriched with visual representations of Dante’s three realms—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—displayed on the walls in a synoptic view of all 100 cantos.
Room 6 – Dante’s Bedroom
The poet’s bedroom is visible only through small peepholes in the entrance door. This deliberate choice, along with a life-sized reproduction of Dante, creates a sense of intimacy, allowing visitors to observe the poet in his private environment.
Room 7 – The Divine Comedy
A long wall in this room transforms into a narrative surface dedicated to the Divine Comedy. Immersive projections animate the space with original illustrations inspired by iconic depictions by artists like Gustave Doré and William Blake, reinterpreted here in animated form.
Excerpts from the Divine Comedy, read by the renowned voice of Francesco Pannofino, intertwine with an original soundtrack, enriching the experience. The visual and auditory journey culminates with the final tercets of Paradiso, completing the visitor’s exploration of Dante’s masterpiece.
THIRD FLOOR
Room 8 – Dante’s City
The final room bridges the intimate setting of Dante’s house with 21st-century Florence, creating a compelling transition between interior and exterior, past and present. Visitors are invited to step outside and explore the hidden corners of Dante’s Florence.
The main wall is dominated by a detail from the Madonna della Misericordia fresco from the Bigallo. Nearby, an interactive touch monitor allows visitors to explore the evolution of Florence over the centuries through a slideshow of panoramic views.
At the center of the room, visitors can choose from three distinct virtual reality experiences:
- A medieval domestic environment, immersing visitors in Dante’s time;
- The city’s major monuments as Dante would have seen them, in their present form;
- A short VR film exploring Dante’s neighborhood in today’s Florence, available in both Italian and English
Room 9 – Florence is Yours Too
The final area invites visitors to rediscover Florence with fresh eyes through unique and original itineraries that follow Dante’s footsteps.
An interactive touch station allows visitors to select their preferred route, highlighting key points of interest on a map of the historic city center. This feature enables visitors to explore the streets Dante once walked, immersing themselves in his Florence with a renewed sense of awareness.