Tribute to the rampant horse

Francesco Baracca between Myth and History

Interactive temporary exhibition

To mark the 100th anniversary of the Great War, the Aeronautical Museum "Gianni Caproni" and the “Francesco Baracca” Museum in Lugo di Romagna (RA) organized in Trento an exhibition in memory of the greatest Ace of Italian fighter planes during World War I, and the story of the rampant horse, recently acknowledged as the most famous Italian symbol in the world.

The rampant horse, silver on a red background, facing left and with a low tail, was the heraldic emblem of the “Piemonte Reale Cavalleria”, one of the most prestigious units of the Italian Army, where Francesco Baracca served at the beginning of the 20th Century. A few years later, the young rider became aviator, and his love for horses made him adopt, with few variations, the same emblem for his planes. At the beginning of 1917, the black rampant horse appeared for the fist time on a plane driven by the Ace, and was later applied to the fuselage of all the aircrafts he piloted.

On 19 June 1918, Francesco Baracca died during a combat flight on mount Montello. From that moment on, his parents decided to keep his memory alive and, after a meeting between his father Enrico and Enzo Ferrari in 1923, a more famous encounter took place with his mother, countess Paolina Biancoli, who donated the precious emblem to Ferrari and said:

“Ferrari, mark your cars with my son's rampant horse. It will bring you luck".

“I still have Baracca's picture with his parents' message donating me the emblem. The horse remained black; I only added a yellow background to represent Modena's colour". This is what Enzo Ferrari wrote on 3 July 1985 to Giovanni Manzoni, historian from Lugo.

The Rampant Horse reappeared as emblem for the 91st Squadriglia in the 1920s, and was finally consecrated as the 4th Wing's emblem by the Italian Royal Air Force upon request by Amedeo d'Aosta, who was leading it at the time. For a short period, the same emblem was also used on Ducati motorcycles, upon request by designer Fabio Taglioni, born in Lugo di Romagna. The rampant horse still flies on Air Force's Eurofighter Typhoon, and famously races with Maranello's cars. Baracca's figure had mostly acquired a rhetorical value but was finally given the professional dimension it deserved, where its devotion and principles bring him even closer to us.

Come and visit us on 25 October 2014 to learn about Francesco Baracca and the story of the Rampant Horse.