Speaker
Description
The Specola Museum in Bologna is about to reopen with a fully redesigned exhibition, offering a renewed interpretation of the historical Astronomical Tower and its scientific and cultural legacy. Built between 1712 and 1726 on the initiative of Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, the Tower served as Bologna’s observatory until the opening of the Loiano Observatory in 1936. Today, its rooms house three centuries of scientific instruments and the stories of those who used and developed them.
The new exhibition unfolds across four thematic floors. One is dedicated to the life, studies, and astronomical expeditions of Guido Horn d’Arturo (1879–1967). Another explores his most innovative legacy: the multi-mirror telescope, a pioneering technology that continues to inspire today’s ground-based and space telescopes. A third section presents early modern instruments and the ways they shaped representations of the Earth and sky during the age of exploration. Finally, the upper floor traces the history and evolution of telescopes—from 17th-century refractors to 20th-century designs—displayed in the evocative setting of the Tower’s great hall.
Through historical artifacts, archival sources, immersive environments, and multimedia resources, the new layout presents the Specola as a living site of research, education, and public engagement—where the past, present, and future of astronomy converge.
