Paths of Hope. Testimonies from the Historical Archive of Fondazione Roma

The exhibition inaugurating the archival programme is Paths of Hope. Testimonies from the Historical Archive of Fondazione Roma: it runs from 30 November 2024 to 29 June 2025 and can be visited free of charge as part of the Permanent Collection tour.

Exhibition highlights

The Jubilee is a moment of celebration and reconciliation involving the entire community of believers, and, in its original conception, embodies an idea that transcends countries and nations. It addresses the whole world, inviting peoples to take part in a shared community.

At the same time, the Jubilee is also a local event rooted in the city of Rome—the centre of this celebration, the heart of the community of the faithful, and the destination of pilgrimage.

It is therefore inevitable that traces and testimonies of the Jubilee, and of the ideas underlying it, are woven throughout the broader history of Rome and the everyday lives of its inhabitants.

The Historical Archive of Fondazione Roma preserves the archival collections of two institutions deeply connected to the city’s history: the Sacro Monte della Pietà and the Cassa di Risparmio di Roma. These are not merely financial institutions, but bodies that from the 16th to the 20th century provided support and assistance to the entire population—a mission that Fondazione Roma continues today.

These documents thus open paths of discovery and storytelling in which major themes intertwine: Jubilees and the pilgrims who took part in them, including important historical figures, alongside the ongoing charitable work of the two institutions, which offered hope to the most vulnerable citizens.

The exhibition guides visitors through stories of queens and peasants, destruction and reconstruction, and the determined defence of the weakest against the forces of nature, alongside hopes for redemption and rebirth—themes that remain, unfortunately, still relevant today.

And even when the archival paths do not lead directly to the heart of the Jubilee, along the way there remains a constant spirit of conversion, penance, reconciliation, and consequently solidarity, hope, justice, joy, and peace with others—the deepest meaning of every Jubilee pilgrimage.