Exhibition: ''Alcide De Gasperi. A life in pictures''  

''Alcide De Gasperi. A Life in Pictures'' explores the life of one of the founding fathers of European integration through photographs, tracing his journey from Trentino to his role in shaping Italian democracy and building a peaceful and united Europe.

The exhibition runs from 13 October 2026 to 15 January 2027 at the Parlamentarium, the European Parliament’s Visitors’ Centre in Brussels.

The biography of Alcide De Gasperi (1881–1954) is woven into the very fabric of the twentieth century - a century of great contradictions which, through idealistic impulses and inhuman tragedies, has shaped the world in which we live. Perhaps this is why today De Gasperi’s story is re-emerging from the past, reminding us of the hallmarks of his greatness and offering us an opportunity to rethink current affairs whilst coming to terms with the profound reasons underpinning our civil society.

The son of a poor yet proud land of mountain farmers, straddling Italy and Central Europe, De Gasperi grew up steeped in the tradition of social Catholicism and, from a young age, chose to make service to his community his ‘mission’. As a Member of the Vienna Parliament from 1911, representing Trentino and the minority of ‘Italians of Austria’, he witnessed, powerless, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the First World War. After Trentino’s transfer to Italy, he became one of the leaders of the Italian People’s Party and, with the rise of Mussolini, led the anti-fascist opposition from the parliamentary benches, for which he paid the price with a prison sentence and fifteen years of marginalisation. Having passed the age of 60, his moment in history arrived unexpectedly, in the midst of the Second World War.

Having founded the Christian Democrats whilst in hiding, in December 1945 he became Prime Minister. He held the post until July 1953, taking a destroyed and divided country by the hand and guiding it with confidence along the steep paths of Italy’s democratic and republican reconstruction.

A man of Trentino, an Italian, a European. Like Schuman and Adenauer, his life transcended borders and found, almost naturally, in ‘our homeland, Europe’ the horizon of his entire life. For De Gasperi, European unity was ‘a fleeting opportunity’ that might never return. An effort was therefore needed to ‘seize it and embed it within the logic of history’. The first steps on the path to European integration also trace De Gasperi’s footsteps, discovering in his vision of a Europe of the peoples a bulwark of democracy and a promise of peace.

In commemorating one of the founding fathers of European democracy, the exhibition invites visitors to relive De Gasperi’s journey, immersing themselves in the images and words that shaped the life story of a man who came from nothing but who, through the courage and consistency of his choices, left a profound mark on History.

The exhibition is organized by the Presidency of the Council of the Autonomous Province of Trento, in collaboration with the Fondazione Museo storico del Trentino and the Fondazione Trentina Alcide De Gasperi.

Curated by Marco Odorizzi (FTADG) and Elena Tonezzer (FmsT) with the collaboration of Monica Avancini (FTADG).
Exhibition design and graphic design: Designfabrick_Rovereto
Organisation and coordination: Chiara Bertolini, Chief of Staff to the Presidency of the Provincial Council