The Civic Archaeological Museum of Bologna has been housed in the 15th-century Palazzo Galvani since its official opening on 25 September 1881.
It holds the rich archaeological collections from the old University Museum, the bequest of the painter Pelagio Palagi and the excavations carried out in Bologna and its territory between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Museum ranks among the most important archaeological collections in Italy and is above all representative of local history, from prehistory to the Roman age.
Its Etruscan section is the starting point for getting to know the civilisation of Po Valley Etruria, whose capital was Bologna, the Etruscan Felsina.
The old collections preserve masterpieces of Greek and Roman art; of particular note is the collection of Egyptian antiquities, one of the most important in Europe.