Capellini Museum

The very young Giovanni Capellini arrived in Bologna from his native La Spezia in 1860, bearing a degree in geology and a strong desire to achieve things. When he arrived, the university’s scientific collections had been lost due to negligence and inopportune dispersal, so he set himself the goal of creating a large museum for the study of geology and palaeontology. In 1868, some rooms at the end of Via Zamboni became available. They had been used as university clinics, but were given over to the Sant’Orsola Polyclinic then under construction. It was there that, in addition to the Institute of Geology, the museum gradually took shape with its first exhibition in 1871.
However, the actual inauguration of the museum took place in 1881, a crucial year for Capellini, who organised and hosted the 2nd International Geological Conference. It was also an opportunity to acquire many new specimens, gifted by the attendees to augment the collections. The indissoluble bond between Capellini and ‘his’ museum was again confirmed in 1911 when the new façade was inaugurated on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the beginning of his teaching in Bologna. Compared to the original modest front, the current design is stylistically connoted by marked Neo-Renaissance references. It is evenly marked by a giant order of Corinthian pilasters that punctuate the differentiated decorative scheme of the two floors forming the museum (there is another top floor where service rooms are located). The ground floor is distinguished by banded ashlar, while the upper floor is perforated with an all but continuous series of openings, at times evoking Venetian windows and at others simply architraved.