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The “Museum Peppone and Don Camillo” commemorates the fictional adventures of two rivals in a small Italian village - Don Camillo Tarocci, a Catholic priest, and Giuseppe ‘Peppone’ Bottazzi, the local Communist mayor. A series of stories was written about them by Giovanni Guareschi from 1946 until his death in 1968. Some of these stories were made into a series of black-and-white films between 1952 and 1965. These were French-Italian productions; they were simultaneously released in both languages and were very popular. The stories were set in Poteratto but the films used locations around Brescello so it became closely associated with the stories.
The museum is located in the San Benedetto Cultural Centre near Matteotti Square in Brescello. It was opened on 16 April 1989 due to the effort and enthusiasm of a small group of people from the town. It is now run by the municipal tourist board and receives thousands of visitors every year. It contains many relics from the films including Peppone’s motorbike, Don Camillo’s cassock, and other memorabilia.
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1095
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Not visible externally (source: M. Foti).
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Allied star markings painted on nose and turret sides.
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In one of the movies, Don Camillo, a former partisan (just like Peppone), drives an M24 Chaffee light tank that has been kept in storage in a secret place since World War II (source: M. Foti). In this movie, Don Camillo e l’onorevole Peppone, the M24 is purported to be a long abandoned German tank; Don Camillo accidentally fires a main gun round and destroys the local peace monument.
In Brescello they wanted to pay homage by having the same type of tank in front of the museum. They failed to get an M24, so they used an M26 instead. Its mantlet and gun are fake, and its muzzle brake comes from an M47 Patton tank. (Source: M. Foti). Although it has been restored it is also missing its engine and any interior fittings, and it has M47 tracks (source: M. Viucci).
From the late 1940s the US Army began transferring tanks to allies in Europe to build up forces against the Soviet Union. Italy was provided with M26 tanks and they served with the Ariete Brigade (later a division) from the early 1950s until at least 1963. This M26 is likely to have been an ex-Italian Army vehicle that was demilitarised by cutting the gun barrel, hence the need for it to be replaced.
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