Italian Multimedia Center “Gravisi”
An immersive journey into the heart of Palazzo Gravisi‑Buttorai: history, science, art, culture and community come to life through interactive installations, digital avatars and multimedia animations.
A museum to experience
The rooms of CMI guide visitors on a journey through the history of the Istria‑Quarnero area: bilingual place names, architecture, works of art, leading figures, culture, customs and traditions take shape on interactive screens, dynamic maps and audiovisual content.
Each station offers different levels of in‑depth information, in Italian, Slovene, Croatian and English, in order to make the complexity of a multilingual and multicultural territory accessible to everyone.
The avatar of Santorio Santorio
In the Centre you meet the doctor, scientist and inventor from Capodistria Santorio Santorio in the form of a digital avatar: a “speaking Santorio” who answers in four languages, in the first person, dozens of questions about his life, his inventions and his era.
Visitors can ask him about the weighing chair, the pulsilogium, his relationship with Galileo, the plague, faith, the use of numbers in medicine and the role of Capodistria and Venice in the birth of experimental science, experiencing a guided dialogue between the seventeenth century and the present.
Animated paintings of Istria
Another section of the Centre is dedicated to a selection of Istrian paintings, from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, which are “brought back to life” thanks to digital animation. Lights, details, gazes and landscapes move subtly to guide the visitor’s eye.
A video brings these animations together in a continuous narrative: the works emerge from the darkness, transform, and almost seem to converse with the visitor, linking painters, eras and settings of an Italian and multilingual Istria.
Animated paintings: Istrian art comes to life
Education and young people
The Centre is designed as an educational tool for Slovene, Croatian and Italian schools: guided tours, multimedia workshops and thematic routes on Italian as a mother tongue (L1) and as the language of the social environment (L2), border history, national minorities and the European project PRIMIS and the European projects implemented by the Unione Italiana.
The Santorio avatar, the animated paintings and the other installations become “travel companions” for classes and groups of students, who can ask questions in Italian, Slovene, Croatian and English, compare interpretations, and in turn produce short digital stories and creative materials.
Community and territory
CMI Gravisi is dedicated in particular to the Comunità Nazionale Italiana of Slovenia and Croatia, to its places and protagonists: historical itineraries, maps, photographs, documents and multimedia testimonies recount events that are often little known to the wider public.
The Centre also hosts meetings, presentations, educational visits and moments of exchange with associations, local institutions and cross‑border partners, as a living space for dialogue on the present and future of national and autochthonous linguistic communities.
Technology and accessibility
The exhibition setup integrates touch stations, projections, multilingual audio, interactive avatars, animations and digital supports designed for intuitive and inclusive use. The content is available in several languages and conceived for different age groups and levels of familiarity with technology.
Attention to physical accessibility and guided routes allows visits also for people with reduced mobility, while the modular structure of the content makes the Centre upgradable and open to new projects, such as additional interactive stations, sound itineraries and thematic routes.
The Centre’s spaces
A look at the interiors of Palazzo Gravisi‑Buttorai, the multimedia installations and the visiting experience.
…the birth of the Centro Multimediale Gravisi
Where we are
The Centro Multimediale Italiano Gravisi is located on the ground floor of Palazzo Gravisi‑Buttorai, in the historic centre of Capodistria/Koper.
Open the map in full screen on Google Maps.