The Museo Mercantile (in German Merkantilmuseum) is a museum in Bolzano devoted to the economic history of the city, of which it keeps documents, paintings and furnishings of the 17th and 18th centuries; it is housed in the Palazzo Mercantile, between via dei Portici and via Argentieri.
What to see
The visitor route winds through the rooms of the palace, where original furnishings, a rich collection of paintings and archive documents can be seen. The heart of the building is the sumptuous hall of honour, the old courtroom of the Magistrato mercantile: the courtroom on the upper floor has a particularly rich decoration, while the auction hall on the ground floor is rather sober. The Palazzo Mercantile in via Argentieri was built between 1708 and 1716 to a design by the Veronese architect Francesco Perotto.
Bolzano was born in the 12th century as a merchant foundation town, developed along a road axis. Thanks to its position on the transit routes of the Brenner road and the Via Claudia Augusta, it became in time the main commercial centre of Tyrol: from the 13th to the 19th century merchants from the German-speaking area to the north and the Italian-speaking one to the south met here four times a year. The Palazzo Mercantile represents the moment of greatest splendour of this long tradition. From 1716 to 1851 it was the seat of the Magistrato mercantile, the fairs tribunal that Bolzano obtained in 1635 by privilege of Archduchess Claudia de' Medici, regent of Tyrol, to revive the city's commercial activity. After the dissolution of the magistrate, from 1851 to 1979 the building housed the Chamber of Commerce; the museum opened to the public in 1998.
Visiting
The museum is in the Palazzo Mercantile, between via dei Portici and via Argentieri; opening hours and tickets should be checked on the official site, because the sources consulted do not give them.
Our editors' tip
Do not skip the hall of honour, the old courtroom of the Magistrato mercantile: it is the room where the disputes of the fairs were judged, the fairs that for centuries made Bolzano a place of exchange of goods, currencies and people.
