Cultural opportunities in Ravenna are many and different in themes. Our museums are an excellent example because of their quality and identity: from ancient art to contemporary art, from Dante to natural science, including traditional puppets, dolls, mosaics and underwater activities.
NATIONAL MUSEUM
HOUSE OF PUPPETS
This museum, dedicated to the art of puppets, is in the town centre, close to Piazza del Popolo. There you can visit the Monticelli Collection, a unique evidence on traditional puppet and marionette theatre. This evidence goes back to 1840 and made the Monticelli family, a. k. a. Teatro del Drago, a keeper of this art for five generations.
The House of Puppets also organises guided tours, puppet shows, workshops and courses for school teachers.
Graziella Gardini Pasini decided
to make her private collection of dolls and toys available to the public. Every
piece dates back to the years between 1860 and 1950; among the collection there
are dolls made of porcelain, cloth, celluloid, paper and other toys. Furthermore, there is no lack of doll houses,
with bedrooms, kitchens and furniture.
On the back of the tomb there is a stair that leads to the museum, that is divided in 5 rooms where several relics are guarded: a copy of Dante’s monument in Trento, some plaques and parchments, some poet’s masques, the case of Father Antonio Santi and the glass urn in which the skeleton of Dante was displayed in 1865. The exhibition ends with portraits, sketches and busts.
ARCHIEPISCOPAL MUSEUM
The museum was founded to collect the pieces of
art located in the Ursus Basilica, that has been demolished in the first part
of the 18th Century.
The exposition itinerary is located along four different rooms and it is full of charm, as history, archeology and art are combined together.
RISORGIMENTO MUSEUM
Since 2004, the Risorgimento Museum is located inside the
Church of San Romualdo, built in 1629 with some materials taken from the Rocca
Brancaleone.
The historical pieces displayed in the museum were mostly donated by the citizens, known for their active role in the Risogimento’s movements. Among the collection, there are weapons, uniforms, photographs, paintings, letters and documents.
It is a permanent exhibition entirely dedicated
to mosaic art, and it is located inside the old church of Saint Niccolò in
Ravenna.
The exhibition hosts also some original pieces
of arts, from the 1st to the 13th Century. They testify
the great artistic heritage of Ravenna and its surroundings.
It is also possible to admire some pieces of mosaic art from the archeological sites of the Domus of Stone Carpets, of the former Saint Severo Basilica, and of the two Domus located in Faenza.
MAR – CITY’S ART MUSEUM
The city art museum is located inside an ancient cloister, built in
the 16th century. In the Seventies, the Academy of Fine Art, the Municipal Art
Gallery (result of heritage and donations) and the Ornithological and Natural
Sciences Museum moved inside the building.
It hosts temporary exhibitions over the year, a big permanent collection (with works from the 14th to the 21st century) and a unique collection of modern and contemporary mosaics.
MAS – NATIONAL MUSEUM OF UNDERWATER ACTIVITIES
The museum is in Marina di Ravenna, a suburb which is 11km far from Ravenna.
First and unique in its kind, it was inaugurated in 1998. It hosts a broad collection of materials, equipments, pictures, dioramas, described by a few educational panels about underwater activities.
The building also hosts a library on these themes, a reference point for many scholars.
NATURA MUSEUM – MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES “ALFREDO BRANDOLINI"
The museum is in
Sant’Alberto, a small town a few kilometres far from Ravenna and close to the
southern areas of Comacchio’s valley. It hosts an
ornithological collection donated by Alfredo Brandolini, a naturalist from
Ravenna, and some results of other donations. There is also a collection of
Adriatic shells, local or exotic reptiles and mammals.
