Museo Di Palazzo Poggi - Jan 31st, 2017

Museo Di Palazzo Poggi - 15th thru 17th Century Collections
Bologna, Italy
Visited on Jan 31st, 2017

In Process

Our family made a trip to Italy this winter because Dh had to go for his job.  This day Dh had to be working and Dd and explored Bologna, Italy without him. We decided to go to the Poggi Museum, our travel books described these interesting wax anatomy specimens so interestingly that I really wanted to see what these anatomical pieces really looked like.  It was quite a feat just finding the museum in the middle of a university in Bologna!  Just walking around and finding this small museum in the midst of all the college buildings was difficult and quite an adventure!

(For some reason, some of the pictures in the post are sideways.  There were NOT sideways on my computer, but somehow in the process of putting them in this post, the computer decided to enter them on their side.  I have no idea why!)

A website for further info on this museum, if you are interested:
http://www.museopalazzopoggi.unibo.it/141/thepalace.html

This museum was an odd collection of various topics.  You would never think you'd have a museum of wax anatomy models, battle seige plans, cannons, replica's of various old ships, portraits of scientists like Newton, fossils, woodcuts, globes and maps, and sea life ALL in the same small museum.  The first few rooms were of old aquatic things..fish, fossils, woodcuts of aquatic specimens and oddities.  "Oddities" defines this museum nicely!

This room, and the glass cases was beyond interesting! It had so many species of water creatures, from blowfish to a whole hammerhead shark!  So interesting!

They had HUNDREDS of these woodcuts, to make prints of many nature specimens. There were a few glass cabinets full of the woodcuts.

This is an actual NARWHAL tusk!  I don't think I've ever seen one before.  The picture doesn't show it well enough, but it was there.

I just LOVED these specimens! I think this museum was a Science Institute for a while, after being a rich family's palace, and before being a museum, therefore all the science stuff.  This building has such a rich history unto itself.

Pregnancy/Delivery Room
Every piece is made of wax, to teach medical students how to deliver babies.

Dd was NOT a fan of this room!  I couldn't help but be fascinated by how wrong things can go when delivering a baby.  Each baby is an example of a situation where the delivery has gone wrong.

The lighting in this building was difficult to take pictures in.

Anatomy Rooms
The second section was of wax models of anatomy.  This was the biggest area, the most rooms, and items.  The purpose was to educate future doctors, and the models were very detailed.  They had ears, the anatomy of the inner ear, hands, legs, organs...
Keep in mind that all these works were made of WAX!



Wax replica's of every bone in the human body displayed in these glass cases.  They had models of skeletons, models of muscles, and each organ in the human body.






This wax body of a pregnant woman was just amazing.  Remember these pieces were made hundreds of years ago.

If you look on the left side of this picture you can see the organs, bones, and muscles that removed to show this view of her body.  

Wall Paintings
Understandably it was hard to focus on the exhibits when the buildings and rooms that housed them were beyond spectacular.  Each ceiling and wall had exceptional artwork on them that equaled or surpassed the items we were to be looking at!  I took a lot of pictures of the murals and moldings on the walls and ceilings.

Above each mural were very detailed wood moldings that held either wooden designs or that had been painted.  This ceiling was painted but it was so old that the paint was faded.  

This picture flipped when I put it in this post, but you can see the wood detailing and molding that was the ceiling.  The geometric wood molding ceilings were amazing in person.  The pictures of the ceilings and murals really do not do them justice. 

Scientists and Science Room

This was a room dedicated to all the scientists that were influential hundreds of years ago, many that I didn't know who they were.

Apologies that some of these pictures are sideways.  I had them placed correctly in my computer, but for some reason they flipped when I pasted them onto my blog and I have no idea why!

I wish you could see this picture, it is the scientist room. This picture shows the room well--the fantastic ceiling with the decorative geometric pattern, the beautifully painted mural, and then the features of the exhibit.

Battle and Siege Room

The third area was dedicated to battle.  They had all these wood diagram models of 'sieges.'   They had quite a few big model ships, maps, globes...  They had lots of cannons and other war things, room after room of various things.  The wooden framed siege diagrams were my favorite; works of art on their own. 

A room of ships

A room of siege models

Courtyard

The building (old palace) that houses the Poggi museum has a courtyard in the middle of the building, that has a centrally placed sculpture--see above.

..........