The Bolzano City Museum has some of the richest historical and artistic collections of its kind in South Tyrol: a valuable collection of archaeological finds, evidence of medieval and gothic art and a significant exhibition of traditional costumes and accessories. There are also numerous folk art objects from Val Sarentina, Valle Isarco and Pusteria.
Archaeological collection on the history of settlements in the local Alpine region from the Mesolithic to Late Antiquity. To see caskets and altars with gothic art doors, Romanesque Madonnas, costumes of the local valleys, Stuben; paintings of the local artistic history from the 16th century onwards.
The museum is housed in a historicist style building built between 1902 and 1904 to a design by local architect Karl Delug, who transformed the pre-existing medieval Hurlach Palace between the eclectic Via Cassa di Risparmio and Via Museo to which it gives its name. The building consists of typically Tyrolean architectural elements with a crenellated tower, Erker and a large portal. Between 1934 and 1937 the building underwent an Italianisation" intervention; like the headquarters of the Bolzano Savings Bank located opposite: the crenellated tower was demolished with the justification of making the view towards the Mendola and the Victory Monument better, the same fate was done with the characteristic onion dome on the corner of via Museo and via Cassa di Risparmio. Between 1993 and 1994 the crenellated tower was rebuilt, while the onion dome was not restored. Since 2003 important restoration works have been underway with the inauguration of a new modern part that will find space in the area of the current courtyard.
