The Municipal Museums of Reggio have been located in the Palazzo dei Musei since 1830. They contain collections and Collections related to Archaeology (Roman Mosaics, Chierici Museum of Palethnology, Portico dei Marmi – Roman section, Regium Lepidi Museum), Ethnography, History of Art (Marble Gallery – Medieval section, Medieval Mosaics), Natural History (Spallanzani Museum, Zoological, Anatomical, Botanical, Geo-mineralogical and Paleontological Collections), History of the City.
In 2021 the new layout of the second floor was inaugurated, designed by Italo Rota and the curators of the Civic Museums.
In the four galleries arranged in a quadrilateral, the layout offers a narrative from the prehistory of the Reggio Emilia territory, to the Etruscan presence and the Roman conquest, to the early Middle Ages, and on to the centuries of the Este family up to the First Tricolour. The itinerary ends with the rooms dedicated to the 19th century and contemporary times, represented by the vast photographic heritage of the European Photography project and the works, exhibited in rotation, of Luigi Ghirri.