The long night of Bolzano museums

On Friday, October 17, from 4:00 PM until midnight, Bolzano hosts a new edition of the Long Night of Museums, a special evening dedicated to culture, with free admission to nine city museums and a rich program of around 30 events.

The program includes guided tours, exhibitions, workshops, concerts, readings, theater performances, and games for all ages. At Roncolo Castle, for example, theatrical performances, live music, sound tales, and evening guided tours will bring the castle's halls to life. At the Victory Monument, guided tours and educational workshops will provide an opportunity to reflect on the history of fascism and the Nazi occupation, through the permanent exhibition set up inside the monument.

At the Municipal Museum, visitors will have the chance to engage directly with the museum team, ask questions, and delve deeper into the themes of the current exhibition. At the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, activities will include prehistoric weaving workshops, educational sessions on ancient dwellings, and musical moments throughout the evening.

Museion will also take part in the initiative with family workshops, short guided tours of the exhibition “Nicola L, Art Conversations,” video projections by Domenico Palma on the theme “Techno Humanities,” and a guided tour led by the director Bart van der Heide. The Merchant Museum will offer family-friendly tours, children's activities, nighttime themed tours, and the exhibition “Flavio Faganello. Photographs on the Move,” featuring a hundred works dedicated to mountain landscapes, rural life, and spiritual traditions.

The South Tyrol Museum of Natural Sciences will present creative workshops such as “Pecus in fabula” and “Animals of the Night,” scientific experiments, games, quizzes, interactive shows by the science communicators Leo Scienza, and live music. The Rencio School Museum will focus on younger audiences with educational labs on animation and optical illusions. Meanwhile, the Semirural House will offer guided tours that tell the story of the workers’ neighborhood built in the late 1930s, through one of the few original homes still standing at Via Bari 11. The archaeological site of Santa Maria in Augia will also be open for guided tours.

There are also several new features this year: in addition to a new visual identity, children and teenagers can take part in a stamp collection game by visiting the nine participating museums. Those who collect at least six stamps—meaning they’ve visited most of the museums—will receive a small gift.

To make it easier to get around during the evening, free shuttle buses will run from 4:00 PM, connecting the city center with Roncolo Castle, the School Museum, and the Semirural House. The shuttles will stop at Via Cassa di Risparmio, the castle parking lot, in front of the school museum, and at the Semirural House.

The event is organized on behalf of the participating museums by the Provincial Museums Company, with support from the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio and Alperia.

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