Leonardo da Vinci Museum Museum

Leonardo da Vinci Museum, machines to handle near the Frari

The Leonardo da Vinci Museum, or Da Vinci Interactive Museum, occupies the Scoletta di San Rocco, a small building on Campo San Rocco, opposite the Scuola Grande di San Rocco and a short walk from the Frari Basilica. Its appeal lies in a simple idea: allowing visitors to understand Leonardo's inventions by operating them themselves.

This is not a collection museum in the classic sense. The exhibition, run by a private company, presents reconstructions of machines drawn by Leonardo and reproductions of his paintings and drawings, with no originals by the master. According to the official website, the whole covers 500 m² and brings together around fifty interactive inventions, 15 multimedia screens and 300 codices and drawings.

What you will see

The route is organized by theme: war machines, flying machines and principles of physics, backlit reproductions of paintings and large-scale drawings, including the Vitruvian Man, then a section devoted to science and anatomy with films and educational workshops. Visitors are invited to operate the mechanisms, which makes the visit more meaningful for children than a painting museum. An audio guide in six languages accompanies the visit, and a shop offers model inventions to build.

The visit is short, about one hour according to the guides, which makes it possible to combine it with another stop in the neighborhood, such as the Scuola Grande di San Rocco or the Frari.