Joe Arrigo’s vision is now only days away from becoming reality.

Leonardo da Vinci Museum of North America will open its doors June 12 in the heart of downtown Pueblo.

I have been reporting on the museum’s progress for months, since before the Colorado Economic Development Commission granted final approval for the project. So Arrigo, the museum board president, recently invited me to take a sneak peek.

When I entered, I was greeted by one of da Vinci’s most famous conceptual designs — the flying machine, or ornithopter, a human-powered glider with 33-foot wings designed to flap like a bird.

Transfixed, I stood and stared. I could not help but consider the mind that designed it more than 400 years before the invention of the airplane. In the late 15th century, horses were still the primary means of transportation. But da Vinci envisioned a time when man would soar above the earth.

I wondered aloud if anyone might have looked at this drawing back then and dismissed it as the doodling of a crazy man.

“I’m sure some people thought he was crazy,” Arrigo acknowledged. “But he always believed that man could fly. He spent years studying the physiology and movement of birds.”

When I asked Arrigo if people thought he was crazy for believing Pueblo was the ideal home for the only permanent da Vinci museum on the continent, he laughed.

“Probably,” he said. “But I’m not crazy. Just determined.”

In 2022, Pueblo’s Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center hosted “Da Vinci Machines and Robotics,” an exhibit of more than 60 contraptions and reconstructed art pieces based on da Vinci’s work. After the show, Pueblo kept many of the models, distributing them to other exhibits across the U.S.

Impressed by the show’s popularity, Arrigo began to wonder if a permanent museum in Pueblo was possible. When the Professional Bull Riders relocated to Texas, Arrigo and other city leaders felt the suddenly vacant building would be an ideal spot to showcase da Vinci.

After years of discussion and planning, the state’s Economic Development Commission granted final approval for the 20,000-square-foot museum in February 2025.

“It’s been a long journey,” Arrigo said. “But we’re almost there.”

Da Vinci was primarily known as an artist, and replicas of his work — most notably the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper — are highlighted in the Pueblo museum. But most of the exhibits are dedicated to re-creations of the Italian polymath’s wide variety of scientific and mechanical designs.

There are five other Leonardo da Vinci museums — in France, South Korea, Australia, Brazil and, of course, the artist’s homeland. But according to the Artisans of Florence, the Italian organization that operates the museums, some of the exhibits can only be seen in Pueblo.

An interactive experience

Years ago, when I was serving in the Navy, I was fortunate enough to visit the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa, but I never got close to it. It’s not possible, as the painting is protected by state-of-the-art security, including armed guards. You can take a photograph of her, but not using a flash.

In the new museum, there is a stunning replica of that famous painting, and I got almost face-to-face with her just because I could.

During my visit, I saw and touched dozens of items, including a self-propelled cart, a robot drummer and a cam hammer operated with a hand crank. Each has been painstakingly re-created by the Artisans of Florence using materials that would have been available in the 15th century.

I could not keep my hands off the exhibits, and Arrigo did not seem to mind.

“That’s the whole point of coming to a place like this,” he said. “We’re hoping kids look at these machines, think about the time they were invented, and start to believe that anything is possible.”

The war machines

A seldom-discussed aspect of da Vinci’s career is the time he spent designing military weapons, such as an armored tank, a giant crossbow, steam-powered cannons and a precursor to the machine gun.

Like da Vinci’s flying machines, many of these inventions were well ahead of their time. Unlike the glider and the aerial screw, however, these were killing machines. Several of the re-creations are displayed at the museum.

I found myself drawn to a chariot that looked particularly gruesome, with spinning blades at its front, designed to cut through anything in its path, including horses and humans. Wall-sized sketches behind the chariot depict the kind of damage it was designed to do.

“Like most of our exhibits, this was built based on da Vinci’s drawings,” Arrigo told me. “It was never built back then. If it had been …”

Arrigo didn’t finish his thought. He didn’t need to.

What’s left to do

Finishing touches are underway as the official opening nears. A gift shop is in the works, as is a library, which will house copies of da Vinci’s drawings and notes — more than 13,000 pages in all.

Additionally, a large-scale reproduction of the Vitruvian Man — a pen drawing showing a male figure in two overlapping positions — will greet guests outside the main entrance. On the day of my visit, workers were clearing space for it.

Arrigo leaned in toward me, as if to share a secret.

“It’s going to be big,” he said.