The Artillery School () was the training establishment of the Arm of Artillery of the Italian Army.
The Artillery School, dissolved as an independent body on 30 September 2010, could trace its origins back to 1888, through numerous reorganization phases.
History
Training establishments related to artillery date back to the XVIII Century, when King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia established the Royal School of Artillery and Fortification. In 1821, it was merged with the existing Royal Military Academy and assumed the name of Application School of Artillery and Engineering.
Central School of Artillery Shooting: 1888-1915
The traditions of the School of Artillery draw their origins from the "Central School of Artillery Shooting" (Scuola Centrale di Tiro di Artiglieria), established on 1 July 1888 (Royal Decree No. 131 of 24 June 1888) in Nettuno. The School was established in order to give adequate impetus to the professional education of cadres and to give artillery training a unitary direction, supported by application standards corresponding to the performance of weapons. In 1894, at the Bracciano shooting range, the first training course on firing with fortress and siege artillery was held for Fortress Artillery Officers.
Following the 1910 Spingardi Reform, on 9 August 1910, the School split, giving rise to two distinct Schools, the Central School of Field Artillery (including mountain artillery and horse artillery) which remained in Nettuno, and the Central Fortress Artillery School, which was established in Rome with a shooting range in Bracciano.
During the First World War the two schools lost their didactic function. In Bracciano a Training Group was established for the preparation of personnel for the specialist units. In Nettuno a special "Experimental Section" was established at the Central School of Artillery with experimental and testing tasks in order to rapidly upgrade and modernize the artilleries. On the other hand, personnel training took place in the depots located behind the front. Among them, should be remembered that of Spilimbergo, which assumed the name of Shooting School.
Interwar period
In 1920, the two schools merged into the Central Artillery School in Bracciano, in the reorganization process which concentrated the combat schools in that area. In 1925 the Artillery Central School was transferred in Civitavecchia, directly under the Army General Staff.
In 1921, the Experimental Section in Nettuno, which had been considerably strengthened during the conflict, became autonomous, first establishing itself in the Directorate of Artillery Experiences and, subsequently, in 1927, in the Artillery Experience Centre.
Month-long courses were held mainly for Officers who were preparing to take up the posts of group or regimental commander. The courses were organized according to a tripartite scheme: a first period, common, necessary to give a panoramic and general vision of the use of the units of the various branches according to the dictates of the current doctrine; a second period, at the respective branch school, in which Officers deepened the study of the characteristics and technique of the weapon they belong to; a third period, again in common, which ensured, through practical exercises and maneuvers with cadres, the acquisition of operational concepts concerning joint cooperation. The School did not have its own Units. For the exercises it had the regiments of the Division "Torino", also based in Civitavecchia, and permanently received in aggregation from other bodies the Groups or Batteries of the non-divisional artillery specialties.
In 1927 the Artillery Shooting School, aimed to troops and enlisted personnel, was reestablished and reactivated in Nettuno. The Artillery Shooting School was directly under the Inspector of Artillery.
Second World War
During the Second World War the activity of the Shooting School of Neptune had a notable increase, above all to retrain the ranks of reservists called to arms who had to constitute or complete the Artillery units.
In 1944 the Central School of Artillery was hit by the allied landing which destroyed the Artillery Experience Center. At the end of the war, the Experience Center remained in Nettuno and was strengthened, also incorporating the Infantry Experience Center of Santa Severa as the 5th Experience Section.