Opened in September 2018 under the name PAFF! (Palazzo dell’Arte del Fumetto del Friuli) and renamed in 2024 with its current identity, Palazzo del Fumetto is a cultural project dedicated to the history and promotion of drawn art, with a particular focus on the Ninth Art.
It initially takes shape as a major international exhibition open to the public. Over the years, it evolves through exhibitions, events and educational activities, involving third-sector organisations, the Municipality of Pordenone and the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region.
With time, the exhibition experience becomes a permanent project, leading in 2023 to the creation of the International Museum of Comic Art, one of the few institutions in Italy dedicated to this narrative form.
Designed like a book to be leafed through and organised into 20 sections, the exhibition spans more than a century of history: from late nineteenth-century Sunday newspaper pages to contemporary graphic novels, including manga, comic books and bande dessinée. Equipped with multimedia and interactive tools, the rooms display original artwork, scripts, historical publications, memorabilia and materials related to the leading figures of the global comics imagination: from Tex, Diabolik and Corto Maltese to Peanuts, Spider-Man, Batman, Dragon Ball, Naruto and One Piece. The collection includes over 200 original plates and around 1,500 publications and objects, among them an original Peanuts strip by Charles M. Schulz and works by E. C. Segar, Chester Gould, Don Rosa, Andrea Pazienza and Marjane Satrapi.
Bringing together Parco Galvani, the villa of the same name and the Galleria Armando Pizzinato, Palazzo del Fumetto forms an integrated cultural hub of over 2,000 square metres near the historic city centre. It offers visitors not only exhibitions and gallery spaces, but also an auditorium, a teaching room, a terrace, a bookshop and Italy’s first climate-controlled storage facility dedicated to the conservation of drawn narratives.
In constant dialogue with the local area and its institutions, Palazzo del Fumetto is now an integral part of Pordenone Musei in Rete, contributing—through the art and language of comics—to the development of an increasingly rich and diverse cultural ecosystem.
Sapevi che…
“The museum route is set up like a comic: it needs to be experienced in an attentive and active way — simply looking around is not enough. To discover the many treasures hidden here, you have to open doors and drawers, compare reproductions and originals, start videos and audio recordings, intuitively and passionately finding connections between images, sounds and objects. An experience that sparks curiosity and imagination.”
