In 1963 a tractor maker from Cento put up the first buildings of a car factory at Sant’Agata Bolognese in eight months, in time to show the press his first car there. Lamborghini’s museum stands in those buildings, at the gate of the works on Via Modena, and the guided tours of the production lines start from its door. On its two floors stand the cars that made the name, from the Miura and the Countach to the few-offs built in their wake.
It is a museum of contradictions, kept in good order. Ferruccio Lamborghini took a bull for his badge because he was born under Taurus, and he never believed in racing as a way to sell his cars; three young men of his team built the Miura’s chassis all the same, and he let them. The museum has carried three names, the last of them the company’s own. And of the four Veneno coupés, Lamborghini sold three and kept the grey one for itself.
In Brief
- The museum opened in 2001 in the first buildings of the factory Ferruccio Lamborghini founded at Sant’Agata Bolognese in 1963.
- It became MUDETEC, the Museum of Technologies, in 2019, and took the company’s name in 2023, its sixtieth year: Museo Automobili Lamborghini.
- Its two floors show the Miura, the Countach and the few-offs, among them the Sesto Elemento, the Veneno and the Centenario.
- Polo Storico, Lamborghini’s heritage department, works just inside the main entrance, restoring and certifying the cars from the 350 GT to the Diablo.
- Guided tours of the production lines start from the museum.
- In 2024 a record 172,000 people visited it.
History
Ferruccio Lamborghini was born on 28 April 1916 at Renazzo, a hamlet of Cento, and trained as a mechanic. After the war he turned military surplus vehicles into tractors. The bull he chose for his cars was his star sign, Taurus, drawn by Paolo Rambaldi, and it suited a man whose saying was “tamugno come un toro”: as stubborn as a bull. In 1963 he bought land at Sant’Agata Bolognese, near his home town, and the first buildings went up in eight months. On 20 October 1963 he showed the press his first car there, the 350 GTV, and production began with the 350 GT in 1964.
He never believed in racing as a way to sell road cars, and the Miura began with three young members of his team: Giampaolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani and the test driver Bob Wallace. Ferruccio was sceptical, and trusted them. Their bare chassis, its V12 set crosswise behind the cockpit, stood on his stand at the Turin show in November 1965; Marcello Gandini styled the body at Bertone, and the Miura was shown at Geneva on 10 March 1966. Lamborghini calls it the first supercar. Dallara left in 1968, frustrated that Ferruccio would not go racing.
Bertone drew the Countach as well, shown as a prototype in 1971, and by 1974 Ferruccio had sold the company. Audi bought it in 1998, and the rebuilt headquarters of 2001 included a museum on two floors. It was renewed in 2016, on the day the Miura’s owners set off on a tour for its fiftieth birthday, and reopened in April 2019 as MUDETEC, the Museum of Technologies, a showcase for carbon fibre. In January 2023, for the company’s sixtieth year, it was remodelled once more and took the company’s own name.
The Collection
The display changes with the years, but its backbone holds. The museum has set out its classics with a claim for each: the 350 GT, the first Lamborghini sports car; the Miura, the fastest car in the world when it appeared; the Espada, the first four-seat sports car with a V12; the LM002, the first Lamborghini off-roader. After them comes the Countach, and the V12 that Giotto Bizzarrini designed in 1963 powered it from its first year of production to its last.
Then come the few-offs, cars built in small numbers. The Sesto Elemento, made almost entirely of carbon fibre and for the track alone, was built 20 times. The grey Veneno is the coupé the company kept. The Sián and the Countach LPI 800-4 were the first Lamborghinis with hybrid technology. In 2021 Marcello Gandini wrote that he had no part in the new Countach; Lamborghini replied that it had never given him one.
Behind the cars stands Polo Storico, opened in 2015, which keeps the archive and restores and certifies the classics. In 2021 it rebuilt the first Countach, the LP 500 sacrificed in crash tests in March 1974 and lost, from the original documents and in more than 25,000 hours; after its debut at Villa d’Este the car came to the museum that autumn. In 2026, the Miura’s sixtieth year, the museum showed the chassis of 1965 again, beside Fabian Oefner’s Disintegrating X – Miura, reproduced at full size.
A museum set beside a factory tells its history. This one is set inside it: in the buildings Ferruccio Lamborghini put up in eight months in 1963, with the production lines a guided tour away from its door.
It holds the marque’s founding paradox, too: a man who would not race built the car his own company calls the first supercar, and a line that runs on to carbon fibre and hybrid few-offs. The bull was his star sign; the stubbornness was his own.
And the crowds have found it: about 100,000 visitors in 2017, and a record 172,000 in 2024.
Visitor Experience
The museum stands at the factory’s own address, 12 Via Modena, about a kilometre on foot from the main square of Sant’Agata Bolognese. Polo Storico’s centre is the first space inside the main entrance.
The visit runs over two floors, through the decades and the few-offs, and a driving simulator lets the visitor take the wheel.
Give the museum an hour, and add the tour of the production lines, which starts from its door. The rest of the day belongs to the Motor Valley around it.
Climate
| Month | High °C | Low °C | Rainfall mm | Rainy days | Daylight h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 8° | 0° | 48 | 8 | 9.3 |
| February | 10° | 1° | 61 | 8 | 10.5 |
| March | 14° | 4° | 62 | 8 | 12.0 |
| April | 18° | 8° | 80 | 12 | 13.5 |
| May | 23° | 12° | 82 | 10 | 14.8 |
| June | 28° | 17° | 65 | 9 | 15.5 |
| July | 31° | 20° | 54 | 8 | 15.2 |
| August | 30° | 20° | 59 | 9 | 14.0 |
| September | 25° | 15° | 76 | 9 | 12.5 |
| October | 19° | 11° | 78 | 9 | 11.0 |
| November | 13° | 6° | 88 | 10 | 9.6 |
| December | 8° | 1° | 66 | 9 | 8.9 |
Monthly averages for Sant'Agata Bolognese, IT, 1991–2020.
Generated using Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026 (CC BY 4.0).
Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.
Location
The museum stands on the road to Modena, at the edge of Sant’Agata Bolognese, a town of the plain between Modena and Bologna. Modena lies 19 kilometres away by road, Bologna 30 and its airport 24, and Milan 190 to the north-west. The nearest railway station is at San Giovanni in Persiceto, 6 kilometres away, and Renazzo, where Ferruccio Lamborghini was born, is 22 kilometres to the north-east.
Around it lies the Motor Valley. Pagani at San Cesario sul Panaro is 15 kilometres away, the Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena 19, the Ducati Museum at Borgo Panigale 22, the family’s own Ferruccio Lamborghini Museum at Funo di Argelato, with his tractors, 23, Modena’s circuit 30, the Umberto Panini Collection and its Maseratis 33, and the Ferrari Museum in Maranello 35. Imola, whose circuit carries the names of Enzo and Dino Ferrari, lies 74 kilometres to the south-east.
Address
12 Via Modena
40019 Sant'Agata Bolognese
Città Metropolitana di Bologna, Emilia-Romagna
Italy
Website