The buildings in which the museum is now housed, next to the church erected by the Jesuits between 1719 and 1740 in honour of St Francis Xavier, were constructed to serve as a Jesuit college between 1746 and 1756 to designs by Alfonso Torregiani (1682-1764).The complex follows the typical plan of Jesuit architecture, with a U-shaped building attached to the side of the church, with a corridor running round the inner side to give access to the various rooms leading off it.

In 1773, with the suppression of the Society of Jesus, the college was taken over by the Episcopal Seminary, which sold it in 1796 to the Dominicans, but after a few months this order was also suppressed.
From 1797 to 1977 it served as a hospital, first for military use and then civilian, and over the years it was altered many times.


The entire structure was seriously damaged by bomb attacks in the last war. A restoration project directed by Architect Pier Luigi Foschi has allowed its spaces to be used as exhibition areas for the Civic Museum.


The museum conserves the historical and cultural heritage of Rimini and its area, with themed exhibits divided into a series of periods and artistic styles.


The archaeological section has a collection of Roman inscriptions on stone and exhibition rooms dedicated to the city in the Imperial age of the second and third centuries AD. The art gallery presents masterpieces of the 14th-century Rimini School, together with works by Giovanni Bellini, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Guido Cagnacci and Guercino.

The museum also has a section dedicated to modern art and spaces used for temporary exhibition events.

There are more than 1500 works on display in 40 galleries on a total of 3,000 square metres. The number of exhibits is going to increase because new sections are scheduled to be opened.

On the ground floor there is an area dedicated to Renè Gruau, a famous contemporary fashion designer from Rimini, deceased in March 2004. 

In the garden-courtyard there is a Roman Lapidary, which contains an epigraphic collection of about one hundred Roman inscriptions.In October 2012 a space dedicated to Federico Fellini has opened in Rimini City Museum where the “Libro dei sogni” (the Book of dreams) is hosted. The book contains the two on which Fellini drew and sketched, since the early sixties to 1990, his dreams, figures, scenaries and circumstances which can be found in his films. The volumes are kept in two glass theca, but in order to browse them there are available a facsimile edition by Rizzoli and the digital one by Guaraldi.
In 2010 was opened the new part of the Archaeological Section situated in the ancient cellar of the Museum. An exhibition on the extraordinary story of Rimini, from prehistory to the end of Late Antiquity. The archaeological section continues on the ground floor, dedicated to the Imperial Rimini between the II and III century, with exhibition of splendid mosaics from the domus Diotallevi palace, as well as sculptures, ceramics, plaster decorations, coins, glass items, bronzes and last but not least the exceptional exhibition of the surgical instrument equipment from the "Domus del Chirurgo" in Piazza Ferrari. The archaeological section gives a view of Rimini from its origins to the Middle Ages, presenting a flourishing and peaceful city during the Roman Empire, a period which was tragically interrupted by the first barbarian invasions.
The first and second floors house the Pinacoteca picture gallery with works dating from the Municipal era to 1900 including masterpieces from the fourteenth century Rimini school.On the first floor there are frescoes, ceramics and paintings on wood from the 15th and 16th centuries that tell the story of Renaissance art: works commissioned by the Malatesta family, lords of Rimini, such as Giovanni Bellini's famous Pietà and the Pala by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

A 14th century fresco called "the Last Judgement", which once hung on a wall over the triumphal arch in Sant'Agostino Church, can be admired in the conference room . The painting is the work of artists from Rimini who were perhaps led by Giuliano and Giovanni da Rimini.

Also on the first floor of the building is the Medieval section which contains 300 finds, sculptures, illuminated codices and other works of art, such as some important masterpieces of the 14th century Rimini school and of Malatestian Humanism.

On the second floor art and sculpture produced in Rimini between the 17th and the 19th centuries are on display together with the works of famous artists including Guido Cagnacci, Il Centino, Il Guercino, Simone Cantarini and Giovan Battista Costa .