Pavia University History Museum

Our Museum gathers a wealth of scientific instruments, anatomical and pathological preparations, documents and ancient volumes: all are a tangible testament to the centuries-long life of the University of Pavia.

Here, visitors will find countless stories on brilliant scholars known for exceptional discoveries, brave doctors fighting illness, scientists entirely devoted to research of an ever uncertain field of study. Alessandro Volta, Camillo Golgi, Antonio Scarpa and many others are the main characters in the history told through the items on display; on the background, student life in historical Italy and the ancient origins of the Athenaeum.

The Museum is also witness to the lives and sufferings of unknown patients of the San Matteo Hospital and to the efforts made by their doctors to cure their diseases, to alleviate their pain and to impart knowledge of their illnesses to University students, in the hopes of training better surgeons and doctors.

Come visit! Our staff eagerly awaits you to lead you on a journey through time and history!

Exhibitions and events

Custodian of our Memory: the Pavia University History Museum in the Central Building of the Athenaeum

Temporary exhibition until 28.02.2023

The temporary exhibition "Custodian of our Memory" aims at guiding the visitor through the almost century long history of the Pavia University History Museum; born in the 1930s to accomodate...

Educational programs

Observing the sky in the inflatable planetarium

Workshop

In the multimedia room  adjacent to the Museum, an inflatable  planetarium  is routinely set up in collaboration with the Physics Department; visitors are guided by an operator through...

SCHOOL+MUSEUM

Workshop

Through the ongoing project SCHOOL+MUSEUM , each year the Museum offers new thematic activities to classes of all ages. The topics broached in the 15 years  of the project have been varied:...

Medicine at Pavia University: from Antonio Scarpa to Camillo Golgi

Workshop

Alessandro Volta and the invention of the battery (Voltaic pile)

Workshop