Museo Storico dello Sbarco in Sicilia 1943

Fantastic museum documenting a critically important operation of WWII. Excellent displays and a good balance of photos, maps and artefacts. It's deceptively large, too - it just goes on and on! Most of the information is presented in both Italian and English.

There is also an exhibition of photographs by the renowned photographer Phil Stern, who documented the invasion as a young US Army Ranger. Even just this exhibition alone would be worth the very modest admission fee - every photograph is a masterpiece and perfectly captures the white hot Sicilian summer.

We were unexpectedly blown away by how good this museum is. It has very comprehensive run downs of the main events of the war in various mediums, simulation of a bomb shelter, recreations of a town centre at the time, all weapons and uniforms on all sides. It’s extremely educational. The photograph gallery at the end is also brilliant and poignant. Would highly recommend to anyone, and so glad I went.

Very reasonably priced, I really enjoyed visiting the museum, quite a unique experience as you enter and you are surrounded by the sound of planes and the alarm goes off.
I loved listening to the stories of the survivors and was particularly touched by the display on the land mine survivors.

I hope I'll be able to spare this experience with my children in the future.

Entrance is only €4 per person. Interesting. Worth to visit. Big parking space available in front of museum.

Very well done exhibition. It displays how Sicily suffered during WWII, and how the Allies and Axis used it as their battleground.

A must is the anti bomb bunker simulation. It allowed me to experience the terror of being bombed 💣.

Eine aus deutscher Perspektive krasse Erfahrung, den II. Weltkrieg erfahrbar zu machen: Man betritt die Geschichte in einem wie Filmkulisse nachgebauten italienischen Platz des Jahres 1943 mit Jazz-Musik und durchläuft nachfolgend einen Luftschutzraum und das alliierte Bombardement, bevor es auf 2 weiteren Etagen viele Informationen zum D-Day auf Sizilien gibt. Unterwegs begegnet einem u.a. eine Wachsfigur Hitlers und jede Menge Uniformen und Kriegsgerät. A bit too much für meine Verhältnisse. Nach 2 Stunden musste ich an Tageslicht und frische Luft.
Sehr eindrückliche Erfahrung der italienischen Sicht auf den Krieg.
Schade, dass das ganze in den 1980er Jahren wiederbelebte Areal schon wieder tot ist. Nur die kaum besuchten Museen der Stadt Catania locken noch ein paar Menschen in das Areal der alten Schwefelraffinerie.

A very good museum, a must go in Catania and definitely head and shoulders above most of its other tourist attractions. Unfortunately, brought down by some serious (though easy to remove!!) Issues. Give it at least half a day if you're interested in the topic of WW2.

The good
- Well balanced focus on the topic: first a broad introduction, then more detailed walkthrough, then even more deep dives into individual categories of life and war
- comprehensive collections of: uniforms, equipment and personal weapons of all sides of the conflict (Italy, Germany, Britain, USA, Canada)
- some heavier weapons (heavy machine guns, mortars, grenade throwers)
- even some heavy guns, a torpedo, etc
- a lot of text, as well as photos and contemporary posters, newspapers etc.
- video on several screens throughout the exhibition
- several life-size recreations of situations from both civilian and military life (bomb shelter, infantry bunker, trenches, landing boat, red cross station, signing of the armistice,. ..)
- several models of battlefields

The bad
- Poor lightning (such a shame!!! so much work and then you just can't see it. Saving electricity??)
- Many texts (and all videos) in Italian only; English, where present, is sometimes barely understandable

The ugly: On the armistice signing tent photo you can see how poorly lit it was. Basically you can only really see just 1 of the 5 figures...