The tribute of Ghilarza to Antonio Gramsci, its adoptive son

The house in which Antonio Gramsci lived with his family in Ghilarza has been transformed into a museum, where the objects that belonged to him and a complete set of his works are preserved. Gramsci (1891-1937) was born in Ales (at that time province of Cagliari, and today a village included in the province of Oristano).

Journalist, writer and philosopher with a strong passion for politics that in 1921, drew him to take part to the foundation of the Partito Comunista d'Italia (the Communist Party of Italy), Section of the Third International. Opposed to the fascist dictatorship, Gramsci was arrested and detained in isolation, before being interned in Ustica.

The detention undermined his health, to the extent that in 1933 was constituted in Paris the “Comitato per la liberazione di Gramsci”, (Gramsci Delivery Committee) in order to make international public opinion aware of his case. He refused to ask for pardon.
Gramsci recovered freedom only during April 1937. He wanted to come back to Sardinia but a brain hemorrhage struck him down: at dawn, on 27th April he died in the capital. The Gramsci's ashes are preserved in the Cimitero degli Inglesi (English cemetery), in Rome.

The village of Ales as well remembers him: the regional and communal administrations have valorized the house in which he was born, which, since the Eighties it has been reserved to social and cultural aims. The Town Hall has dedicated to Gramsci also a public square, designed by the illustrious architect Giò Pomodoro.