A few steps from Downtown Blue Apartment is the Naval Technical Museum, the most important among Italian naval museums and one of the oldest in the world. It is located next to the main access gate to the Military Arsenal and has been in this location since 1958, while previously it was located inside the military establishment.

Its history begins in 1570 in Villefranche-sur-Mer, where the counts of Savoy established the first base of their Navy. Subsequently, with the transfer of the Sardinian-Piedmontese Government to Cagliari, following the Napoleonic conquests, a new collection was started in Cagliari. With the collapse of Napoleon’s power and the return of the Sardinian-Piedmontese government, in 1815 the entire collection was transferred to Genoa, the site of the new military base of the Sardinian Navy.

There, the museum remained for 55 years until 1870, when, by the will of Cavour, all Navy services, including the Naval Museum, were transferred to La Spezia, thus becoming the headquarters of the First Maritime Military Department. During World War II, due to numerous bombings, many precious materials were lost, but in 1958 the Museum was restored next to the main gate of the Arsenal.

Inside the Museum, there is a fine collection of scale models of vessels from the navies of the Italian states, the main Italian units launched between 1860 and 1910, and those from World War II. There are also important collections of figureheads belonging to vessels of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. There are also rooms dedicated to assault vehicles, as well as underwater weapons used during World War I and World War II.

The Museum preserves relics, artifacts, testimonies of navigation, battles, inventions, and innovations. Of particular interest is the photographic documentation of Guglielmo Marconi’s early experiments with mobile receiving stations at the end of the 19th century. The Naval Technical Museum is a true gem of the Italian Navy that you can visit while staying at Downtown Blue Apartment.