Luigi Bombicci Mineralogical Museum, Bologna
The Luigi Bombicci Mineralogical Museum (Museo di Mineralogia Luigi Bombicci) is a part of the Alma Mater Studiorum university museum system of the famous University of Bologna. Over the years, one of the oldest universities in the world has been putting together huge collections in various disciplines. One of them is the richest collection of minerals brought from all over the world.
History of the museum
The museum is located on the ground floor of the building which houses the Department of Natural Sciences of the University of Bologna. On January 30, 1862, the Department of Natural History was divided into 3 parts: mineralogy, zoology, and geology. Each section, along with fulfilling its direct duties, contributed to the museum. The department of mineralogy was then headed by Professor Luigi Bombicci whose name the facility carries today. Immediately after the division, the Renaissance layout of the building was redesigned by the architects Pasquale Penza and Flavio Bastiani. The works were completed only in 1903.
At the very beginning, the museum boasted about 9000 exhibits in the collections, and thanks to the professor’s efforts, the collection grew to 48,000 pieces by 1901. Throughout the next century, new exhibits had been constantly added to the collection as well.
Museum exhibition
Nowadays, the number of exhibits in the collection exceeded the mark of 50,000 pieces. The permanent exhibition of the museum puts on display "only" 10,000 of them. It covers an area of 850 square meters and divided into several parts:
- Systematic mineralogy. Around 3000 exhibits can be found in 10 display cases here. All of them are separated according to the chemical-structural classification.
- Mineralogical-petrographic collection of Bologna. Consists of about 1000 kinds of crystals, mainly from the local province. Recently, it has been enriched by several private collections.
- Mineralogical collection of Italian regions. It includes the rarest and valuable pieces from the inactive mines of different regions of the country.
- Tool collection. It boasts 19th-century devices which helped in mineral studies. These are microscopes, goniometers, and spectroscopes. Visitors can learn about the process of light refraction in crystals which is displayed in one of the cases.
- Meteorite collection. 142 samples taken from fallen celestial bodies are exhibited in two showcases. Extremely rare ones are considered to be carbonaceous chondrite Renazzo which fell and landed in Ferrara on January 15, 1824.
- The Sarti collection. This is a collection of decorative stone used in construction from antiquity to 1876. In total, has about 1000 objects.
- The Ambre collection. This is a valuable collection of 400 pieces of the rarest Sicilian amber, many of the samples have insects.
- Gems. Here are rare samples of various stones, including diamonds.
- Igneous rocks. 900 examples of plutonic and volcanic rocks as well as beautiful phosphorescent minerals can be found in this part.
How to get
The museum is located in the east of the historical center of the city, in Piazza di Porta S. Donato, 1. Porta San Donato can be found nearby, the Geological Museum houses its collections in the next building. There are two other museums of the university system located 2 minutes away from here: zoological and anthropological one. The closest bus stop is Porta San Donato (buses 14, 20, 25, 28, 36, 89, 93, 99, 106, 211, 243, 301, 916).
Opening hours: Monday–Friday from 09:00 to 13:00, Saturday–Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00. From June to August, the museum is open from 10:00 to 13:00, from Monday to Friday. Contact number: (+39) 051 209 4900.
Admission: free. However, a guided tour will cost 2 euros, and 1 euro for persons under 18 years. Educational material costs 5 euros.
