THE MUGOT

MuGot – Museo Gotica Toscana – was founded in 2011 to preserve the memory of the battles that pitted the German army against the Allies in the Apennine territories north of Florence in September 1944. In those days, the areas flanking the Giogo Pass were the theater of furious attacks launched against the Gothic Line by the Allies, intent on breaking through the last fortified defense line set up by the German army in Italy south of the Po Valley.

The museum, located in the locality of Ponzalla at Scarperia, consists of about 400 square meters of exhibition space, with materials arranged in four large rooms in 27 showcases. Objects, mannequins of soldiers and reconstructions of the defensive positions of the Gothic Line make up the permanent exhibits, which are the fruit both of the collection of the members of Gotica Toscana APS and of discoveries on the battlefield. Donations by veterans and their families are also part of our exhibits. MuGot makes it possible
to visitors, scholars and schoolchildren, to see first-hand restored field installations and many museum exhibits related to the Second World War, bearing witness to those fierce battles.

On Route 503 leading to the Giogo Pass there are also monuments commemorating the Allied soldiers who sacrificed their lives fighting for freedom.

On Mount Altuzzo – near the Giogo Pass, about 6 km from Mugot – and on the Monticelli hill-mass, pillboxes and trenches have been researched and excavated by Gotica Toscana APS to get them back to their original wartime form. They bear physical witness to the battles that took place on the Apennine spurs between 13 and 18 September 1944.

Making these testimonies known in order to bring reflection and awareness of those war times is the aim of MuGot and the volunteers of Gotica Toscana APS, who are the proud custodians of this historical heritage.