Museums

Trentino, the bridge between Italian and Nordic cultures, is a harmonious combination of the different features of these two worlds. The old towns, churches, castles and populated landscape are the essence of a museum world in wich itineraries, atmosphere and sensations are intermingled. The provincial exhibition centres, each featuring specialisations, condense the centuries-old history of this land. Small and large buildings provide a moment for thought and an opportunity to learn something new. Ethnography, technology, modern art, archaeology, natural sciences, sacred art, folklore, contemporary art and history of the land are displayed in 17 museums in continual evolution and with ambitious programmes. This small land in the heart of Europe has chosen culture to start the third millennium.

Museus of "Buonconsiglio Castle. Provincial monuments and collections"

The Museum is located in various centres in the province and include Stenico Castle in th Giudicarie, Beseno Castle, near Rovereto and Castel Thun in Val di Non.

Buonconsiglio Castle preserves many fine collections, the first of which was formed in the mid-19th century in the Civic Museum of Trento (1853). Since they were moved to the castle in the 1920s, when the National Museum was formed (1924), these collections have continued to grow. The medieval and modern art collections are manuscripts, among which the famous 15th century music codices and the collection of the musicologist Laurence Feininger, a purple evangelistary (5thC) and the Gragorian Sacramentary (9thC). The Museum preserves a large collection of paintings, sculptures from Carolingian period to Rococo, furnishings, detached frescoes, majolica tiles, cinaware, prints and drawings. Besides the numismatic collection, the archeological sections is also very important and includes relics of special interest. Among these are materials and wood from the Bronze Age, objects from the Iron Age and Roman and Longobard times. The collection of Egyptian and Far Eastern art is also very important. In Stenico Castle, the so-called Casa Vecchia rooms are furnished with furnitures, paintings, steel weapons or fire-arms, as well as old domestic utensils dating from 16thC to 19thC.

Modern and Contemporary Art Museum of Trento and Rovereto

The permanent collections include paintings and scultures from Romanticism to modern times, with particular reference to 20thC and Futurism art.

The museum is located in tree centers:

Trento. Palazzo delle Albere. Summer residence of the Prince Bishops built for the Madruzzo Family in the mid-16th century. Largely frescoed with valuable mural cycles by Marcello Fogolino. Restored in the 1970s.

Rovereto. Fortunato Depero Museum. Founded in 1957 by Roveretan artist, it occupies a house in the medieval historic cente and contains important works by Fortunato Depero.

Rovereto. Archives of the 1900s. Roveretan section specialised in the field of historic-artistic research. Modern exhibition area containing futurist works of Trentino public collections and various 20thC private donations.

Tridentine Museum of Natural Sciences

The museum is housed in Palazzo Sardagna (Trento). This building is enhanced by the museum's displays producing a pleasent effect that accompanies the visitors through the 21 show rooms where the most typical subjects of trentino's natural landscape are exhibited. The Museum collects and arranges natural history material of mainly alpine interest. The displays describe the most significant mineralogic/paleontological finds in the area and its geological history, with special attention for the Dolomite area and the surroundings of the town of Trento.

Apart from its main seat, the Tridentine Museum of Natural Sciences has several centes of undisputed importance in various parts of Trentino.
Alpine Botanical Garden at Viote on Mount Bondone.
Lake Dwelling Museum at Molina di Ledro.
Arboretum of Arco Climatology Observatory at Roncafort
"Julius Payer" Glaciology Centre at Mandron (Adamello)

Tridentine Diocesan Museum

The Museum is located in Palazzo Pretorio (Trento) and displays the diocese's heritage of Sacred Art.

MUSEO STORICO IN TRENTO

The Museum is located in Buonconsiglio Castle (Trento). The social, political and economic history of trentino from the end of the 18th century to the second postwar period is illustrated in the showroom in the new centre. Domuments,relics and some important works of art by Trentino Artists are on display.

"Gianni Caproni" Air Museum (Mattarello, Trento)

The exhibition hall contain 20 planes, built between 1910 and 1980. Nine of them are the only ones in the world. Among the most important pieces exhibited: Guglielmo Marconi's radio which he used for the first communications by air balloons and airships. The rib of Wright's plane that flew to Rome in 1909, E. Forlanini's firts aviation engine built in 1887.

National History Museum of Alpine Soldiers (Doss Trento, Trento)

The building, an impressive construction in the style of Roman castrum, made out of a former Austrian powder-magazine donated by Comune of Trento to the Alpine Acropolis Foundation, is by the Milanese architect Serafini. The interior plan of the museum consists of a nave, a crypt and eight niches on each side of the nave. The Sacrarium of "Gold Medals for Military Valour of Alpine Troops", from 1896 to 1945, is located in the crypt. Personal objects, arms, photographs and documents of the most important episodes in the history of the "Black Plumes" are exhibited in showcases inside the Museum.

Civic Gallery of Contemporary Art of Trento

The Civic Gallery occupies some 800 sq.m of exhibition space divided into two distinct areasand, not having a permanent collection at the moment, it operates like Kunsthalle changing dispalys and conferences throughout the year.

Museum of Uses and Customs of the Trentino People. (San Michele all'Adige, Trento)

The museum occupies the old Augustinian monastery of San Michele all'Adige founded in the first half of the 12th century and later enlarged and rebuilt several times. The museum collections are exhibited in 40 rooms in an area of 2500 sq.metres where nearly 9000 different exhibits are displayed featuring mountain rural trcnology in its Trentino historical-ethnographic specificity.

Civic Museum of Rovereto

The Museum has sections on archeology, history, folklore, numismatics and natural science.

History of War Museum (Rovereto, Trento)

The Museum is located in Rovereto Castle one of the most notable monuments of military history made by Venetian military architets who, between 1417 and the early 16th century, radically altered the previous stronghold of the Castelbarco Family. In the inner courtyard are displayed some pieces of artillery, a monument to sailors and a berlin formerly kept in the Vienna imperial park. The exhibits are displayed in showcases illustating the development of fire-arms and weapons used by various armies during the course of this and previous centuries.

Civic Museum (Riva del Garda-TN)

The Museum is located in the Rocca di Riva, a historical stronghold built for the people of Riva in the 12th century by Como master builders. The fortres was altered several times over the centuries and, in the mid-19th century, it was turned into a barracks by the Austrians. It has been designed to become an organic centre of dumentation on the environment and the historical and artistic development of the Upper Garda and Ledro area.

The Magnificent Community of Fiemme Museum and Picture Gallery (Cavalese-TN)

The museum begins with the most important documents of the Community of Fiemme, original and antique copies of the first statutes of the valley rules, displayed alongside less important exhibits of family life and tools and implements of long ago. There are also many paintings from the Fiemme Art School.

Ladin Museum of Fassa (Vigo di Fassa-TN)

In this museum there is an ethnographic display giving a brief introdaction to the traditional society in Fassa, showing the life and work of the community.

Civic Museum of "Geology and Ethnographic" (Predazzo-TN)

The Museum is divided into four sections, one on local ethnography an three on geology (paleontology, petrografy and mineralogy). The geological collections concern the Dolomites and in particular the Fiemme and Fassa area. The museum extends to the surrounding countryside along the "Geological Path of Doss Cappel" and about ten other geologic, mineralogic and petrographic itineraries, the destination of guided excursions.

Museum of the Val di Sole Civilisation (Male'-TN)

The museum preserve, reconstruct and hand down the most important moments in the lif e of this alpine valley: the means and ways of subsistence work, social relationships, the forms of handicraft and the vastest possible collection of tools in daily use farm and dairy equipment.

"S.Nuvoli" Museum of Postcards and Minor Collections (Isera-TN)

Besides Postcards, the museum collections include prints, posters, documents and commemorative stamp books. There are over 20000 postcards subdivided into 19 subjects.