Above the 18th-century Poggi Palace, the seat of the rectory of the Alma Mater Bolognese Studiorum, this tower was built by C. F. Dotti between 1712 and 1725. The Specola Tower, from which you can observe the blue sky, was built because, at the beginning of the 18th Century, the Poggi Palace was transformed into the Science Institute, on the initiative of Count L.F. Marsigli. To reach the specola tower, you go to N°33 via Zamboni, from where you can reach the tower, in which a real Astronomical Museum has been established. At Torre della Specola e Museo Astronomico, you can see instruments from the 18th and 19th Centuries, used by Marsigli himself for astronomical observations: astrolobes, telescopes, sun dials etc. Nest door is the Meridian Room, with a marble and brass meridian, built by E. Lelli in 1741. Admission: Free.
This palazzo was built in 1549 and is thought to have been designed by Pellegrino Tibaldi. The Torre della Specola e Museo Astronomico is built on top of the palazzo and dates back to 1725. It was built by Carlo Francesco Dotti. The university of Bologna has used the building since 1802 as an Institute for Science and as a museum for the university. They has visiting times every day. It is possible to visit the historic Aula Carducci where Giosué Carducci taught and see the beautiful courtyard which contains a sandstone statue of Hercules by Angelo Grabiello Piò.
This important museum has around one million exhibits. The Museum dates back to 1881, and is divided into four sections. The first section is dedicated to antique collections and materials belonging to the scholars Cospi, Marsigli, and Aldrovandi. The second section contains around 6000 fossilised plants. The third section holds several hundred fossils of vertebrates including a Jurassic icthyosaurus, a huge diplodocus, and a Pliocene rorqual whale. The fourth section contains more than 100,000 examples of invertebrate fossils and thousands of rocks. The Museum contains a valuable fossil called the Ranina Aldrovandi, named after the famous Bolognese researcher Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605).