City Museum of Rimini

History

The museum is mainly located in the building, designed by Alfonso Torreggiani as the Seminary and Convent of the Jesuits. Construction took place from 1746 to 1755. After the suppression of the order, the site was transferred to the Dominicans and then in 1797 became a civic hospital. The structure was heavily damaged by the bombardment during the second world war. The hospital was closed in 1977. Since 1990, it has become the Civic museum, designed by Pier Luigi Foschi, and dedicated to Luigi Tonini, who founded the first civic museum in Rimini.

Collections

The courtyard of the cloister houses a Roman Lapidarium, dedicated to Professor Giancarlo Susini, initially curated in 1981, and displaying inscriptions from the 1st to 4th-centuries. In 2015, the museum garden was dedicated to the archeologist Khaled al–Asaad, who was murdered at the site of Palmyra in Syria. The basement has another archeologic display including instruments from the nearby Domus del Chirurgo and mosaics discovered in the Palazzo Diotallevi.

The first floor of the museum has a permanent display of works by the local fashion illustrator René Gruau and a display of the Libro dei sogni (Book of Dreams) by Federico Fellini. Spanning the first and main floor is located the Pinacoteca or painting gallery of Rimini, containing works from the 11th to the 20th centuries, including work a large Renaissance fresco of The Last Judgement attributed to Giovanni da Rimini and a Last Supper attributed to Benedetto Coda. Many of the paintings belong to the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Rimini. Among the collection are:

St John the Baptist and Madonna by Giovanni Francesco da Rimini (painted as arms of a Cross) …