The Museo Civico Medievale is a glimpse of Bologna in the Middle Ages.

Inside, there is the imposing statue of Pope Boniface VIII, which adorned the facade of the municipal palace in Piazza Maggiore at the time when Bologna was part of the Papal States. 

Bologna is also home to the oldest university in the Western world. The doctors (professors) of the university (Studium) are depicted in the monumental tombs of the Hall of Arches while teaching their students. 

From the symbolic place of economic power, the Palazzo della Mercanzia, come the busts of the city's patron saints, works of the Dalle Masegne workshop. 

The Middle Ages also saw the triumph of the miniature: within the museum, marvelous miniatures adorn the statutes of the Art Societies and an extraordinary series of choir books and liturgical books from city churches and convents (13th-16th centuries). 

Bologna, like other cities in Italy, also had its lords: the Bentivoglio and court life are reflected in Ludovico Bentivoglio's rapier and the pair of flasks with the Sforza-Bentivoglio coats of arms. 

But at the Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna, there is not only the Middle Ages starting from the palace where it is located, the 15th-century Palazzo Ghisilardi, continuing with the bronze room where some masterpieces of the Late Renaissance and Baroque are exhibited. Among these is the model for Giambologna's statue of Neptune, one of the city's symbols, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini's bust of Pope Gregory XV Ludovisi.

The collections are enriched by the large opus anglicanum chasuble, a cloak used in religious ceremonies and embroidered with an English technique, Renaissance ceramics, French and Italian ivories, precious Murano glass, objects of Islamic art, and the armory.

Please check the Museo Civico's website for any changes in opening hours.