Arcadia Italy

Written by Lorenza Decarli,  Administration and Finance Manager for Italy Programs in the Arcadia Italy Center

When you walk on the streets of big cities you can sense a lively pulsing community. In an metropolis like Rome, with thousands of years of history, every building can hide historical associations, guilds, groups or simply an unexpected treasure with an amazing story to hear.

Today with the words from our staff member, Lorenza Decarli,  we would like to introduce you one of these little jewels, part of the history and of the social texture of Rome: the House Museum Arms Academy Musumeci Greco.

" I want to introduce to you a little jewel I discovered a few months ago in the historic center of Rome. Between the beautiful buildings around the Pantheon, there is a very ancient school of fencing. It’s the Scuola di Scherma Aurelio Greco. This place is particularly interesting as it combines history, art, sports and cinema.

Historically, the school was founded in 1848 by the Greco family. Aurelio Greco and his brother Agesilao, sons of  Salvatore Greco dei Chiaramonte, a Sicilian aristocrat and head of the Garibaldini at that time in Sicily were fencing masters. They had created a new type of dueling sword in the beginning of 1900, becoming leaders in this discipline in Italy. Aurelio Greco dedicated his life to teaching fencing at his own academy, until his death in 1954.

The school is culturally relevant as it was chosen as a museum “Casa Museo” for its priceless historical and cultural heritage.

The Museum houses in fact a vast collection of weapons, shields and masks dating back to the XV century. On the walls of this museum you can see paintings that tell the history of the family as well as other artworks of important artists of the twentieth century such as Duilio Cambellotti, the best-known Italian representative of Art Nouveau.

It is also possible to do a guided tour and visitors can try and hold swards or sabers, simulating a fencing assault.

Since 1878 this academy has been offering courses for beginners and experts from all around the world. It formed many athletes and obtained 7 world titles at the Fencing Championship in 2014. 

In 2016 an athlete of this academy participated at the Paralympics of Rio and in 2019 Lorenzo Roma, a young athlete of the accademia gained the world title U20 at the World Saber Championship.

As for Cinema On the ancient platforms of this school the most important worldwide actors already from the Eighties, such as Richard Burton, Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster, Gina Lollobrigida, Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, Luciano Pavarotti, Orson Welles and many others, came here to learn fencing directly from the Maestro Enzo Musumeci Greco, the creator of the  scenic fencing in collaboration with Hollywood and Cinecittà studios.

The Casa Museo Accademia d’Armi Musumeci Greco organizes all kind of private events like gala dinners, cocktails, cooking shows,  movie and fashion sets and team building conferences. Every event can be enriched by the exhibition of professional fencers. In 2015 the fashion house Maison Valentino chose this location for the Memorabilia Romae event and Sony launched the advertising campaign of Alpha 9 their hi-tech camera.

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