Museo della città, City museum in Livorno, Italy
The Museo della città occupies the Bottini dell'Olio building, displaying artworks, photographs, and archaeological finds in spacious rooms with vaulted ceilings. The collection tells the story of how this port city grew and changed over time.
The museum complex was approved by the municipal council on 21 September 2010, and the first stone was laid on 29 January 2013 in the presence of mayor Alessandro Cosimi. The library section opened on 16 December 2017 on the first floor of the renovated Bottini dell'Olio, while the museum itself was inaugurated on 30 April 2018 by mayor Filippo Nogarin. A new permanent section of History and Ancient, Medieval and Modern Art, curated by Paolo Cova, opened on 22 December 2024.
The museum's layout follows Livorno's urban growth, opening with old maps and a large model of the city as it looked in 1749. Later rooms trace the foreign communities — Jewish, French and Armenian — that shaped the port between the 17th and 19th centuries, and a wall honours notable Livorno women.
The museum occupies the former church of the Assumption and the ground floor of the Bottini dell'Olio in the Venezia Nuova district, joined by a modern connecting building. The library section opened on the first floor of the Bottini in December 2017; the museum itself opened in April 2018. The permanent history and art section was reinstalled in December 2024, so check which galleries are open before setting out.
The museum displays the three fake Modigliani heads at the centre of the 1984 hoax, when a student's sculptures were briefly taken for lost works by the Livorno-born painter. The episode became a national media case and is now part of the city's story.
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