The “Enrico Bernardi” Machine Museum was founded thanks to a bequest from the heirs, who bind the objects and archives belonging to the engineer to the then Institute of Machines of the University of Padua. Inaugurated for the first time in 1941 on the centenary of the birth of Professor Enrico Bernardi, it has since collected the testimony of Bernardi’s inventive genius and is a source of study on the technological evolution of internal combustion engines.
Enrico Bernardi (Verona, 20 May 1841 – Turin, 21 February 1919) began to deal with internal combustion engines around 1870, responding to the emerging need for compact, light, and easily transportable machines. Since its foundation, the Museum has been closely linked to the history of the Institute of Machines, originally located in via Marzolo. In the 1970s, with the transfer of the Institute to the new university campus via Venezia, the Museum also found a new location, becoming an integral part of the Machines sector of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, which merged in 2011 into the Department of Industrial Engineering.
Since 27 September 2014, the Museum has been in an even more functional location closer to the teaching spaces of the Department, offering students direct contact with the exhibition heritage.
The Museum hosts the main examples of internal combustion engines that revolutionized engine design in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century, from the atmospheric engine to 4-stroke models. Each piece on display was built by Bernardi himself, including the exceptional three-wheeled vehicle, the only original specimen and still perfectly functioning without modifications.