TEXTILE museum- Leopoldo Franchetti

Leopoldo Franchetti (Livorno 1847 - Roma 1917)
The Barron Leopoldo Franchetti was born in Livorno to a family in good standing. Publicist and politician, deputy and after a senator was very active in promoting education and concrete solutions for economic, social and political problems in the new Italy. In 1873 he took a sabbatical in southern Italy and so becoming one of the foremost authorities regarding the "problems of southern Italy." In 1876 together with Sidney Sonnino published the results of their survey done in Sicily work of high importance for the formulation of the problem of southern regions of Italy. In 1880 he moved to Città di Castello and in 1900 married Alice Hallgarten born in New York in 1874, with whom he moved to into the recently completed Villa della Montesca. Despite the thirty year age difference their marriage was happy and the Barron's love for his young wife is what fueled his desire to share their projects of solidarity. He pushed his politics towards comparatively difficult humanitarian and philanthropic goals of the time. The Barron Franchetti died of mysterious causes, perhaps suicide, after the dawn of the defeat of Caporetto and he left his estate to a charitable organization and his farm to the farmers who worked it. The Barron and Baroness Franchetti are remembered for their political, social, and civil commitments and contributed in writing the history and development of the Upper Tiber Valley

In the photograph: The Barron Leopoldo Franchetti: Tacchini photo archives