Founded in 1987 under the aegis of the Autonomous Province of Trento, the Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto operates through three separate sites: the museum’s main campus in Rovereto, an extensive architectural complex designed by Mario Botta and Giulio Andreolli and inaugurated in 2002; the Casa d’Arte Futurista Depero, also in Rovereto; and the Galleria Civica in Trento, which became part of the Mart in October 2013.

Born with a vocation as a contemporary agora, the Mart is a special museum in an exceptional context.
The Mart is a contemporary landmark set in the broader cultural landscape of Trentino. The absence of metropolitan development in the local area translates into high quality cultural and touristic attractions for all those who love nature, the outdoors, fitness and wellbeing, and who value uniqueness.

The Mart is keeper of an inestimable legacy that includes the greatest masterpieces of 20th-century Italian art. It features these and other notable works in dozens of exhibitions and projects every year made possible thanks to a full staff of curators, conservators, researchers, archivists, training professionals, science educators, and public relations specialists.

Since 2002, Mart Rovereto has been housed in the building designed by the Ticino-born architect, Mario Botta. The building’s centre of gravity is the large glass and steel dome above the central access piazza to the Museum. The roof maintains a constant dialogue with light and covers an area of 1,300 square metres, is 25 metres high and has a diameter of 40 metres, exactly the same as the Pantheon in Rome. For the facades, Mario Botta chose a yellow stone of Vicenza to blend in with the 18th-century setting of corso Bettini.

The result is a dialogue between the Mart’s site and a series of historic, public and private buildings that announce the Museum while barely revealing it: Palazzo del Grano, Palazzo Alberti, the Teatro Zandonai and Palazzo dell’Annona. Around the Mart, to complete the Cultural Centre designed by Mario Botta, there are two other institutions: the Biblioteca Civica of Rovereto and Auditorium Fausto Melotti. The overall area occupied by the Mart is 29,000 square metres, of which 14,500 built over.