At Palazzo Blu, the exhibition “University in the 20th Century. Pisa and Its Institutions” offers a visual journey through the history of Pisa’s academic institutions over the past hundred years, highlighting how their development has profoundly influenced the life and identity of the city.

The photographic images on display, curated by Prof. Andrea Mariuzzo from the Department of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, come from various documentary collections. They mainly include the archives of Guido Allegrini and Luciano Frassi, supplemented by materials provided by Pisa’s university institutions. Additionally, documents from the extensive collection of materials related to Pisa, its university campuses, and student life belonging to Muzio Salvestroni are included, among which the collection of “numeri unici” stands out—periodical newspapers distributed during the Freshers’ Festival at the beginning of the academic year.
Student life in the city is the dominant theme of the second part of the exhibition, which is organised into four main thematic areas. The first focuses on the university institutions’ buildings and research centres, illustrating their architectural development and gradual integration into the urban fabric, in parallel with the emergence of mass higher education in Italy, particularly in Pisa. The second provides an overview of institutional life at the universities, concentrating on official events such as the opening ceremonies of the academic year and presenting a gallery of distinguished visitors to the city’s universities. The third aims to offer a snapshot, necessarily partial, of the development of academic studies, featuring a gallery of some of the most notable professors and students from Pisa’s universities, as well as the results of some of the most innovative research programmes. The fourth and largest section follows student life, from the more or less formal events of traditional student societies, to the organisation of the Fascist University Groups, to the political movements that occurred between the 1960s and the 1990s, concluding with a representation of students’ leisure activities and their presence in the city.
In the auditorium of Palazzo Blu, the exhibition will be accompanied between October and December by a series of in-depth talks coordinated by Prof. Daniele Menozzi. At the first event, on Sunday 12 October at 11:00, Prof. Andrea Mariuzzo will present “The Pisa University System in a Changing Italy”.