The Accademia d'Armi Musumeci Greco fencing academy house-museum is located in Rome at n° 87, Via del Seminario, just a stone's throw from the Pantheon. It is housed on the first floor of a 15th-century Palazzetto that once belonged to Bishop Diego de Valdes, chamberlain to Alexander VI Borgia, who was Pope from 1492 to 1503. The Academy has belonged to the same family since 1878, who have passed the torch from the Risorgimento era to the present day without interruption, while taking care to ensure that the spirit of the sporting and human ideals that led to its establishment are kept intact.

Duilio Cambellotti, one of the foremost representatives of Italian Art Nouveau in the early 1900s, dedicated a logo to the Academy, featuring a Puma and symbolising the ‘Supremacy of the Sword’. Mimmo Paladino, a leading figure of the Transavanguardia artistic movement, also created a logo for it in 2011, representing the ‘Timeless Fencer’.

The museum occupies the main ‘piano nobile’ floor of the building, featuring coffered ceilings, ancient exposed masonry and neo-Gothic furnishings. It consists of a spacious Weapons Room, a studio housing a rich collection of 18th and 19th-century paintings, two changing rooms for athletes and corridor-galleries displaying numerous diplomas. Two commemorative marble plaques are affixed to the external façade.

Visitors can explore and admire a diverse collection of documents and art objects, a selection of European and Oriental bladed weapons dating from the 17th to the 20th century, period paintings and autographed letters from historical figures associated with the Hall, as well as attending live lessons and fencing bouts by Paralympic and able-bodied athletes who are World, European, Italian and Regional champions, including one athlete who finished in sixth place at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.

The Academy’s centuries-old history began with its founder Salvatore Greco dei Chiaramonte, a hero of the Risorgimento (1835-1910) whose marble bust is displayed on the Pincian Hill alongside Garibaldi. It continued with his sons Agesilao (1866-1963) and Aurelio Greco (1879-1954), legendary fencers, and his grandson Enzo Musumeci Greco (1911-1994), creator of the profession of ‘Maestro d'Armi’ or Fencing Master for the cinema. The lineage extends to the present day with Maestro Renzo Musumeci Greco, a fencing instructor at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Cinematography Centre) and various theatres, who is considered to be the most accomplished Fencing Master in the world of Italian entertainment.

Many famous figures from the Italian and international entertainment world have trained here and collaborated with the Academy, including Tony and Ridley Scott, William Wyler, Vittorio Gassman, Max Von Sydow, Errol Flynn, Abel Gance, Michele Placido, Monica Bellucci, Massimo Ranieri, Alberto Angela, Hugo de Ana, Liliana Cavani, Franco Zeffirelli, Charlton Heston, Mario Monicelli, Alba Rohrwacher and Roberto Bolle, to name but a few.

The Musumeci Greco Fencing Academy is available for organising corporate and private events, presentations and cultural events, culinary shows and photo or film shoots.

Entire property per day: €2,500 (holidays and the day before holidays only)

Entire property for the weekend: €4,000 (2 days)

Entire property per week: €15,000.

VISITS

Group cost:

• 1 to 5 people: €150.00,
• 6 to 10 people: €200.00,
• 11 to 20 people: €300.00,
• 21 to 30 people: €350.00.

Visits by appointment: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays, 12 noon to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and holidays.

Manager: Roberta Cacchione.

PLACES OF INTEREST IN THE VICINITY

Pantheon, Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Church of Sant’Ignazio, Church of St. Louis of the French, Piazza Navona.