Open Air Museum of Italo Bolano



The Open Air Museum was designed and made by the Elban artist Italo Bolano in 1965, originally under the name International Art Center, which is today a department of the Museum.

The Museum stretched between the Castiglione Etruscan fortress and the Napoleonic Villa in San Martino, in the very heart of Elba, and hosts 30 important monuments made by the Elban artist, which live in perfect harmony with the nature in the huge 10.000 square meters park, surrounded by Mediterranean plants, eucalyptus, mimosa, cypress, myrtle, oleander. Inside the museum you can visit a permanent gallery of Bolano’s works.

The Museum works also as a meeting place for cultural activities, experimental laboratories, seminars and exhibitions. The big statues and the pottery paintings created by Italo Bolano express his interior life and his abstract expressionism. They live and change as if they were human beings in the eternal moments of material and spiritual life.
The Museum Center is recognized by Tuscany Region as one of the first Modern art’s path (TRAART), and hosts exhibitions’ galleries, places for conferences, pottery labs, open air theaters and bookshop; it is also possible to visit the studios of the artist, who commutes between Elba in the summertime and Prato during winter.

Information about the Museum and Opening Hours

Opening Hours From 15th June (closed on Sunday): 10:00-13:00 16:00-19:30
Prices Free entrance
Location and How to get here

San Martino in Portoferraio

From Portoferraio head the country road towards Marina di Campo, about 5 km after, head the detour to San Martino, Napoleonic Villa in San Martino and some meters further you will see a sign to the left which points at the Italo Bolano’s Open Air Museum

Italo Bolano’s works on Elba Island

Italo Bolano’s Open Air Museum, in San Martino: 30 monuments on a 10.000 square meters park

Italo Bolano’s works in Portoferraio:

• Sestante and Barca del Sole, steel and dallas glass
• Navigazione, pottery m. 1,8 x 5,00
• Stele (Plaque) to Ilario Zambelli, martyr of Fosse Ardeatine Massacre

• Saint Joseph 13 square meters, San Giuseppe Church, in Carpani

• Decoration of about 300 square meters, Cinema Teatro Pietri (closed to the audience today)

• Decoration, Sala della Pretura, in Portoferraio

Italo Bolano’s work in Campo, on Elba:

• Italo Bolano’s Sacred Art Museum, San Gaetano’s Church: 16 canvas about Jesus Christ’s life

• To Giuseppe Pietri, pottery 1 x 7 meters and a big canvas (painted with oil) in the Town Hall

• The Allied Invasion in Marina di Campo, pottery 0,8 x 2,4 meters

• To Teseo Tesei, pottery and steel

Italo Bolano’s works in Capoliveri:

• Millennium, pottery 10 square meters

• Sun and Moon, steel and dallas glass

• Capoliveri meine liebe, pottery

Italo Bolano’s works in Marciana (Loc. Procchio):

• Relitto di Procchio, pottery 0,8 x 2,4 meters

Italo Bolano’s works in Marciana Marina:

• Il Giorno / La Notte, The Day/The Night pottery 0,8 x 2,4 meters, dedicated to Mario Luzi

Italo Bolano’s works in Porto Azzurro:

• Spanish Porto Azzurro, pottery 4,5 x 1,65 meters (to be relocated)

• Vita del mare, Sea Life pottery 2,35 x 1,20 meters (to be relocated)

Italo Bolano’s works in Rio nell'Elba:

• L'affondamento dello Sgarallino, pottery 1,2 x 2,4 meters

• Omaggio alla terra di Rio, pottery 0,8 x 2,4 meters

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