Rimini City Museum

The Rimini City Museum is a historical and archaeological museum with a series of collections from throughout the city and the region.

Located in a former eighteenth century Jesuit monastery and then hospital, the Rimini City Museum traces the history of the city back to Ancient Roman times, with exhibitions ranging from tomb inscriptions to coins. It even has surgical tools found in the nearby Surgeon’s House archaeological site.

History of Rimini City Museum

A short walks through the streets of Rimini’s historic centre will take you to the Church of Suffrage which was dedicated to San Francesco Saverio. The museum is located in a former Jesuit convent immediately next to the church which was built between 1746 and 1755. After the order was supressed, the site was transferred to the Dominicans and then became a civic hospital in 1797.

The structure was heavily damaged as a result of bombing during the Second World War. The hospital was closed in 1977, and has been home to Rimini City Museum since 1990.

Rimini City Museum Today

With over 1500 works on display that span over 3,000 square metres within over forty galleries, the Rimini City Museum displays many different collections. Medieval and Renaissance pieces form a large part of its exhibits, and are mainly comprised of paintings, frescoes, and sculptures.

The courtyard of the cloister exhibits a collection of around 100 Roman Lapidariums dating from the 1st to 4th centuries, which provide an insight into daily life, family ties, society, and religion.

In 2010, a new Archaeological Section in the basement was opened. It documents Rimini’s extraordinary history with a splendid collection of mosaics, sculptures, ceramics, plaster decorations, coins, glass items, and bronzes. There are also a collection of instruments from the nearby Surgeon’s House, or ‘Domus del Chirurgo’.

The first floor of the museum houses a permanent collection of works by local and influential fashion illustrator Rene Gruau, and a display of filmmaker Federico Fellini’s ‘Book of Dreams’ ahead of the Fellini Museum being opened.

Across the first and main floors of the museum are painting galleries of Rimini, which contains works from the 11th to 20th centuries.

The museum tour follows the chronology of the territory, from its origin to the current day.

Getting to Rimini City Museum

From the centre of Rimini, the museum is a 12 minute walk via Via Bastioni Settentrionali. By car, it takes around 3 minutes via Corso Giovanni XXIII, or is a 6 minute cycle via the same route.