Giovanni Capellini Geological Museum, Bologna
The Giovanni Capellini Geological Museum (Museo Geologico Giovanni Capellini) is part of the university museum system Alma Mater Studiorum of the famous Bologna University. Throughout the years, one of the oldest universities in the world has been collecting a great number of various objects. An impressive collection of ancient fossils can be found here as well.
History of the museum
Geological collections began to grow back in 1860. The geologist and paleontologist, Professor Giovanni Cappellini, who later became the head of the Department of Geology, worked actively on them. The division of the Department of Natural History of the University of Bologna into 3 parts – mineralogy, zoology, and geology – in 1862 especially helped with that. Each separate department performed an active work on the museum along with carrying out its direct duties. In 1881 the museum was opened to the public. During the same year, the International Geological Congress was held in Bologna, the scientists who took part in it made a significant contribution to the development of the museum’s collections. After the symposium, they donated a lot of valuable exhibits.
By 1911, 30,000 fossil samples had been collected by Professor Capellini alone. The exhibition grew immensely throughout the past century.
Museum’s exhibition
Today, the museum's collections include more than 1 million fossils from around the world. Among them, there are many fossilized plants, invertebrates, and vertebrate fossils. Such a rich collection testifies to more than 500 years of persistent scientific research. Two skeletons of proboscis animals called Mastodon arvernensis and 14 skeletons of elephants are especially remarkable. The huge backbone of the Jurassic dinosaur Diplodocus carnegii deserves particular attention, it is 26 meters long and 4 meters high.
How to get
The museum is located in the historic center of the city, on Via Zamboni, 63. The old city gate Porta San Donato can be found nearby, the Luigi Bombicci Mineralogy Museum is housed inside a neighboring building. There are two other museums that belong to the university system: the Museum of Zoology and the Museum of Anthropology. The closest bus stop is Porta San Donato. You can catch buses № 14, 20, 25, 28, 36, 89, 93, 99, 106, 211, 243, 301, 916 there.
Opening hours: from Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 12:30, from 15:00 to 19:00 on Saturday, from 10:00 to 18:00 on Sunday. Contact number for inquiries and booking: (+39) 051 2094555.
Admission: free.
