Eighty-one years ago, on February 10, 1944, an Allied bombing damaged the Propaganda Fide building, inside the Pontifical Villas complex in Castel Gandolfo, causing over five hundred victims among the refugees that had taken shelter in the area.

To remember this event, commemorate the victims and honor the great solidarity shown by Pope Pius XII, a permanent exhibition entitled “Castel Gandolfo 1944” was set up in the Apostolic Palace.

Curated by Prof. Luca Carboni of the Vatican Apostolic Archives, the historical-documentary exhibition was promoted by the Governorate’s Directorates of the Pontifical Villas and the Vatican Museums. It is also a way to remember the generous assistance and care provided by Vatican employees to the thousands of displaced people who, starting from 25 January 1944, were given refuge in the extra-territorial Vatican area of ​​Castel Gandolfo. In fact, hundreds of refugees poured into the gates of the Pontifical Villas to find safe haven from the Allied bombings under the protection of the Pope. The then Director of the Pontifical Villas, Emilio Bonomelli, opened the grounds and services to all these displaced people.

The exhibition, through photographs, historical films, interviews with survivors and period objects, allows us to relive the dramatic experience of those who took refuge inside the Pontifical Villas, where they settled anywhere, in the rooms, in the halls, under the stairs, in the gardens or among the archaeological remains of the cryptoporticus of the Villa of emperor Domitian.

The photographic images are accompanied by never before published films and documents found in the files of the Archive of the Pontifical Villas, recovered and reclassified.

The exhibition was set up in collaboration with the Association of History and Memory of the Castelli Romani (formerly the Association of Relatives of Victims of the Propaganda Fide bombing).