Museo dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità - ISS

Inaugurated in 2017, the Museum offers visitors a unique, multisensory itinerary, able to fascinate and involve young people and adults, allowing them to learn about the origins of the largest Italian research institute in the field of public health.

The Isituto Superiore di Sanità was founded in 1934 and, since the early years of its activity, it owned a Museum which was later decommissioned in order to recover its spaces. The sensitivity towards the preservation and valorization of the historical-scientific patrimony was reactivated in the 1990's with a first collection and cataloguing of the historical instruments that belonged to the Physics Laboratory and with the start of a project for the realization of a historical photographic archive. The desire to valorize the historical patrimony was then accentuated in the 2000s with the creation of a series of publications of historical-scientific interest and the planning of congress activities dedicated to the "Histories and Memories of the ISS".

The Istituto Superiore di Sanità is today the technical-scientific body of the National Health Service, and represents the main Italian research institute in the biomedical and public health sectors. The heart of its activity has always been research and experimentation for the production of scientific evidence that can generate and develop knowledge in defense of public health. Founded in 1934 to deal with the malaria emergency in our country, it soon became the reference point for many other activities aimed at health protection such as the production of penicillin or the assessment of health risks related to the use of radium. Numerous Nobel Prize winners have worked at the Institute.

The Museum is a center of dissemination of scientific culture related to the promotion and protection of public health in line with the mission of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità "promotion and protection of national and international public health through research, surveillance, regulation, control, prevention, communication, consulting and training. The Museum is divided into distinct sections that embrace the history of the Institute from its origins to the present day, with an eye to future prospects.

The Museum promotes the knowledge of ISS and underlines its value and its commitment, past and future, to public health. It contains a historical section of a permanent nature and a temporary section to present current issues, variable in time, but of certain interest to citizens.