Mineralogical Museum and the opening of Via Irnerio

The first town plan, which gave Bologna a modern face in 1889, envisaged the opening of a new road axis parallel to the Via Emilia urban route. It was necessary to cut a way through the city farther to the north. Ten or so years later, this road was actually built and corresponds to today's Via Irnerio, which opens onto a small irregular-shaped square at the point where it connects with the end of Via Zamboni.
It is precisely at this junction, the trapezoidal space drawn by the two roads, where the Mineralogy building stands. This was a town planning and architectural challenge owing to its irregular shape. The area became a point of pride for Flavio Bastiani, the engineer put in charge of the design of this new section of the city allocated to university building use. He found himself dealing with a complex floor plan and the need to comply with precise requirements set by the clients. From the very beginning the museum was allocated to the main part of the building. The large hall on the first floor, accessed by a Verona marble grand staircase, was described as “quite grandiose” by its designer. The ground floor, raised slightly higher than street level and darkened by the portico, itself considered a “public necessity”, was instead destined for teaching use.
The choice of the exterior appearance that looks like a shell, a finish inconsistent with the building’s main body, is telling. In fact, two designs were originally prepared. One was in Gothic style and one in classic (also cited in some documents as ‘Palladian’). The latter was then chosen by the museum director, Luigi Bombicci, even if it was more expensive. The terracotta architectural decorations comprised a powerful portico supported by sturdy pillars and a crown of large Venetian windows illuminating the museum, destined to become the building’s defining element.

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The building’s origins and collections

The Institute of Mineralogy’s collections were originally housed inside the large Palazzo Poggi in conditions that forced Luigi Bombicci, a famous scientist and director of the facility since arriving in Bologna in 1860, to turn directly to the mayor in order to finally get the attention he was due. In his open letter dated 1890, he even attached an illustrative floor plan and requested a new building. It was a simple design – a U-shaped block – in which maximum space was set aside for the collections, while for the rest of the surface was occupied by a large lecture hall serving as the premises of the “Practical School”, a laboratory and the director’s office.
Bombicci also comprehensibly specified the need for proximity to the museum of geology (the Giovanni Capellini Geological Museum) in terms of both theme and space along Via Zamboni named “Sacra Via delle Scienze”, the sacred street of sciences.
The question remained undecided until 1894 when people started to talk about new premises on the north side of Piazza Minghetti, but this idea was not followed up either. In 1897, the Mineralogy building, together with Anatomy and Physics premises not far away, was one of the priorities taken into consideration by the so-called First Convention, ratified in 1899. On this occasion, a special Civil Engineering section was built under the guidance of the engineer Flavio Bastiani, who was also behind the architectural designs.
The premises soon proved to be insufficient after completion of the complex and its initial development. An adjacent property in Via Zamboni became free in 1936 and was demolished to allow the enlargement. Then came the war, and several rooms were damaged. In 1951, repairs to the roofing and walls were carried out and it was necessary to wait until 1954 to see the fifth road section on the south side to be integrated thanks to a new building erected by the Civil Engineers.
In 1966, the complex grew, taking over all the areas still free on the Via Irnerio side with building work, which this time were professedly non-mimetic.

Sources

Università di Bologna. Palazzi e luoghi del sapere, a cura di Andrea Bacchi e Marta Forlai, Bologna, BUP, 2019.
I nuovi Istituti Scientifici dell’Ateneo Bolognese, Memoria di Flavio Bastiani, Roma, Stabilimento Tipo-litografico del Genio Civile, 1907.
Ghigi, A., Lo sviluppo edilizio dell'università di Bologna, Roma, Fratelli Palombi, 1941.

Photo: 1Cinquantesimo