Medieval Civic Museum, Art museum in Palazzo Ghislardi Fava, Bologna, Italy
The Medieval Civic Museum is an art museum housed in the Palazzo Ghislardi Fava in central Bologna, displaying medieval objects such as weapons, stone carvings, ceramics, and applied arts. The rooms are connected to each other, allowing visitors to move through different groups of objects in a natural sequence.
The museum opened in 1985 and was built around two major private collections assembled over many decades by Marquis Ferdinando Cospi and General Luigi Ferdinando Marsili. Together, these collections gave the museum its starting point and shaped its scope.
The collection includes monumental tombs of university professors alongside illuminated manuscripts and guild documents. These objects show how deeply the university and craft guilds shaped life in Bologna over the centuries.
The museum sits in the center of Bologna and is easy to reach on foot, with direct access from the street. Allow enough time to look closely at the objects, as the rooms are numerous and many of the pieces reward careful attention.
A gilded copper statue of Pope Boniface VIII, made around 1301 by Manno Bandini da Siena, is one of the few surviving works of art from that early period. It was created to mark the end of a conflict between Bologna and Ferrara, giving it a very specific local meaning.
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