Historical Museum of the Gothic Line

The South Africans entered Montemurlo on 11 September 1944, even though three days earlier they had already reached the outskirts of the town, at Bagnolo, where they were stuck by the rubble of the bridge that had been blown up by the retreating Germans.

The museum was created in 2000 by the Historical Research Group 'Gothic Line' of Montemurlo and collects artefacts, documents and photographs of the passage of the front in the area.

These include the remains of a Spitfire aeroplane of the Raf, a spy plane found in 2002, piloted by Leonard Williams, who survived the crash and returned to Italy in 2003 to see the remains of his plane.

Finally, in 2022, the daughters of the South African soldier James Orr, who painted 150 watercolours during the Italian campaign in Florence, Prato and Pistoia, donated their father's album to the museum and the Montemurlo community.