In Bologna, as well as in other big Italian cities, there are a large number of different museums. But the most interesting and unusual from all of them is the Museum of Palazzo Poggi.

It is located in a palace of the 16th century, built for the family of a local aristocrat and a true amateur of science Giovanni Poggi. The museum includes the private collection of Poggi, who loved to keep interesting artifacts.

In 1711, the city authorities became the proprietors of the palace. They decided to turn the museum into a scientific institute. After the restoration, there were opened scientific spaces, an observatory, and a library.

At the end of the 1990s, in the building, it was decided to establish the museum complex, which unified all the exhibits. In 2000, the new museum was opened for visitors for the first time.

Palazzo Poggi looks gorgeous. There, in 8 rooms, decorated with frescos and paintings of the Renaissance Epoque’s artists, are presented exhibits related to the natural history, anatomy and obstetrics, physics and chemistry, military architecture and geography. 

You can also visit the office of a famous Italian poet, an owner of the Nobel Prize in literature, Josue Carducci.

Men are definitely will be impressed by a collection of a weapon, models of ships and cars, military carts. By the way, there is a special area of geography and navigation.

Also, the museum has a large collection of items, related to the history of the University of Bologna: various metals, stamps, and a rich art gallery.

The collection of natural history shows you the ancient animals, protozoan plants and minerals. 

One of the rooms is dedicated to physics and a scientist Lugi Galvani, who discovered an “animal” electricity. There are presented the items of his laboratory and the painting which illustrates an experiment with a frog.

The main feature of the museum is that it helps to trace the evolution of scientific discoveries. Today many things, surrounding us, seem to be very simple, but this idea is wrong. Before being used, the things needed to be invented and realized with difficulties.