Poor Devils | The Peasant Revolts of 1525 in the Prince-Bishopric of Trento

Starting on October 24, 2025, the Museo Diocesano Tridentino will inaugurate the exhibition “Poor Devils. The Peasant Revolts of 1525 in the Prince-Bishopric of Trento” in the galleries of Palazzo Pretorio, curated by Domizio Cattoi and Marta Villa, in collaboration with Alessandro Paris. The initiative is part of the Euregio Museums’ Thematic Year and stems from a broad research and collaboration project involving the Italian-German Historical Institute of the Bruno Kessler Foundation, the University of Trento, the MITAG – Italian War History Museum of Rovereto, and the Diocesan Museum of Bressanone. 

Five hundred years later, the exhibition retraces one of the most turbulent moments in the history of the Trentino prince-bishopric. Between the spring and autumn of 1525, peasants, artisans, and valley communities rose up against fiscal and feudal impositions, openly challenging episcopal and imperial authority. Although the insurrection was harshly suppressed, it left a profound mark on institutions and on collective memory. Through artworks, documents, manuscripts, everyday objects, and multimedia tools, the exhibition conveys the complexity of that experience, offering visitors the chance to grasp its roots, dynamics, and consequences. 

The display unfolds across several thematic sections, weaving together different perspectives. Representations of the peasant—sometimes as a humble worker, sometimes as a “poor devil”—introduce the tension between reality and social imagination. Landscapes of the valleys and churches, both protagonists and victims of the unrest, evoke the territorial dimension of the revolt. The improvised weapons of the peasants and the professional armies’ equipment illustrate the imbalance of forces, while also highlighting the determination of the rebels. Original documents and chronicles bear witness to the climate of fear, negotiation, and repression that characterized those months, while the ideas of the Protestant Reformation provide the cultural and symbolic backdrop against which new demands took root. Along the way, visitors are invited not only to discover a crucial episode in local history but also to reflect on universal themes: social conflict, the representation of dissent, and the construction of power and its narratives. 

In this way, the exhibition creates a dialogue between past and present, encouraging a critical reading of dynamics of marginalization and resistance, and suggesting parallels with peasant and community struggles of our own time. It is not merely a historical reconstruction, but also an opportunity for civic education and awareness, where history becomes a means of questioning our contemporary world.

 Source: https://www.museodiocesanotridentino.it/