Casa d'Italia
505 Jean-Talon Street
Entrance to the Casa d'Italia
The Casa d'Italia is our first stop of the tour. It is Montreal's first Italian Community Center. Since its opening on November 1st, 1936, a lot has happened to the Casa d'Italia.
Two years prior to its opening, in 1934, more than 4,000 Italians and Italian Canadians gathered to have a fundraising event to allow its construction. Many donations were made straight from Italy, to support the esteem and the support of the regime by Italian Canadians. The then Montreal mayor, Camilien Houde, also made a very generous donation. However, the original concept for the building had to be scaled down because the donations were insufficient.
Patsy Pasquale Colangelo, a 25 year-old architect, will then start his official plans for the building. This was going to be his first major construction, which would also become his most controversial one too. He incorporated modern looks and fasces, the Fascist symbols, by demand of the Italian community. The fasces were ingraved on the main floor and are still there to this day. He also made the building's windows long and narrow, trying to make them look like the black sashes the Fascists would wear. In the entrance hall, there was a plaque with a telegram sent by Mussolini himself on November 1st 1936 to inaugurate the community center. The activities that were taking place in the building were mainly for members of Mussolini's Fascist Party in Canada. To promote the ideology of Fascism many activities took place: cultural activities, veteran and youth group meetings and Italian classes (CCPI-Casa d'Italia, 2010).
As Sam Capozzi explains in an interview conducted by Filippo Salvatore, there were five or six fascist organizations in Montreal during the 1930s. The Italian community supported the fascist régime because Italy received respect from many nations and the government showed interest to Italian Communities overseas. The government had paid for schools to teach Italian and had sent Italian cultural volunteers to Montreal. Capozzi explains: "I would say the majority of people had a great liking for the Italian government at the time" (Salvatore, 1998, 93-94).
But the Canadian government intervened fast against the growing fascist organizations that were taking place at the Casa d'Italia. In 1940, the Canadian Army occupied the building and did not give it back to the Italian Community until 1946. When it was finally returned in 1947, the building had been abused. It needed to be renewed and many projects had from there on taken place to renew the place. However, none of these projects were successful. (CCPI-Casa d'Italia, 2010).
Today, the community center has turned into a museum of Italian Immigration in Montreal.
Two years prior to its opening, in 1934, more than 4,000 Italians and Italian Canadians gathered to have a fundraising event to allow its construction. Many donations were made straight from Italy, to support the esteem and the support of the regime by Italian Canadians. The then Montreal mayor, Camilien Houde, also made a very generous donation. However, the original concept for the building had to be scaled down because the donations were insufficient.
Patsy Pasquale Colangelo, a 25 year-old architect, will then start his official plans for the building. This was going to be his first major construction, which would also become his most controversial one too. He incorporated modern looks and fasces, the Fascist symbols, by demand of the Italian community. The fasces were ingraved on the main floor and are still there to this day. He also made the building's windows long and narrow, trying to make them look like the black sashes the Fascists would wear. In the entrance hall, there was a plaque with a telegram sent by Mussolini himself on November 1st 1936 to inaugurate the community center. The activities that were taking place in the building were mainly for members of Mussolini's Fascist Party in Canada. To promote the ideology of Fascism many activities took place: cultural activities, veteran and youth group meetings and Italian classes (CCPI-Casa d'Italia, 2010).
As Sam Capozzi explains in an interview conducted by Filippo Salvatore, there were five or six fascist organizations in Montreal during the 1930s. The Italian community supported the fascist régime because Italy received respect from many nations and the government showed interest to Italian Communities overseas. The government had paid for schools to teach Italian and had sent Italian cultural volunteers to Montreal. Capozzi explains: "I would say the majority of people had a great liking for the Italian government at the time" (Salvatore, 1998, 93-94).
But the Canadian government intervened fast against the growing fascist organizations that were taking place at the Casa d'Italia. In 1940, the Canadian Army occupied the building and did not give it back to the Italian Community until 1946. When it was finally returned in 1947, the building had been abused. It needed to be renewed and many projects had from there on taken place to renew the place. However, none of these projects were successful. (CCPI-Casa d'Italia, 2010).
Today, the community center has turned into a museum of Italian Immigration in Montreal.
Museum of Italian Immigration to Montreal
Pasquale Iacobacci. La Presse
Two years ago, Pasquale Iacobacci, the director of the Casa d'Italia, started restoring the building. Impassioned by ethnology and history, his goal was to change the Casa d'Italia into a museum of Italian Immigration to Montreal. He envisioned the Casa to have an showroom, an Italian culinary school, a conference room, a library and an archives center. On the most part, the building was well preserved, but Iacobacci restored some parts of it. The floors were well preserved, on which Mussolini's symbol can still be seen on the floor.
Iacobacci has spent the past two years gathering anything he could find on the Italian Immigration.Today, the museum is open to the public while it is still getting its final touch ups. The "Memory Hall" is the showroom on the main floor where the story of Italian immigrants during WWII is told. Iacobacci gathered many archives and created a small exposure of the lives of the Italians during the war. The Italian culinary school is a future plan of Iacobacci, to help bring money into the Casa. This year, the Casa is celebrating its 75th anniversary (Laurence, 21 May 2011).
Iacobacci has spent the past two years gathering anything he could find on the Italian Immigration.Today, the museum is open to the public while it is still getting its final touch ups. The "Memory Hall" is the showroom on the main floor where the story of Italian immigrants during WWII is told. Iacobacci gathered many archives and created a small exposure of the lives of the Italians during the war. The Italian culinary school is a future plan of Iacobacci, to help bring money into the Casa. This year, the Casa is celebrating its 75th anniversary (Laurence, 21 May 2011).
Banners on the wall, as you walk in. One is about the 'Italian Week' in Montreal, which was from August 5 to 14, 2011. the other commemorates the 75 years of the Casa d'Italia.
On the floor of the Casa d'Italia, the fasces.
Monday September 11th, 1939: Canada Declares War!
Banner on the wall, remembering the Casa d'Italia.
Painting of 'Forza Italia' representing July 9th, 2006. s on the streets of Little Italy as Italy won the Fifa World Cup.
The Casa d'Italia has become a real museum of Italian history in Canada. Many displays are up presenting old books, diaries, documents on Italian immigration in Canada.
The conference room.
