Museo della Storia di Bologna

This is the museum that has created the biggest buzz in Bologna in recent years. Its home, the massive 14th-century Palazzo Pepoli Vecchio (or Antico) in the shadow of the Two Towers was built by Bologna's earliest bosses. Until 1723, it was improved: a scenographic stair, stuccoes, paintings, frescoes and statues were added to the medieval fabric.

In 2003, the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna purchased the palazzo and held an international competition for its conversion into a museum, won by architects Mario Bellini and Italo Lupi. They restored the palace's original features and converted the courtyard into a striking steel and glass tower, described by Bellini as 'a tower-umbrella' or

a magic lantern flooded with white sunlight which gradually descends and dematerializes into pure transparency. It is practically a moment of revelation which leads one to ponder on the passing of time.