Italian Cultural Institute Cologne

Shortly before the end of the Weimar Republic, Mayor Konrad Adenauer established the first German-Italian cultural institute, named after the Italian poet and historian Petrarch. Located on Overstolzenstraße at the edge of the Volksgarten, it was led until 1936 by Italian scholar Arturo Farinelli. The institute operated until 1944 and was destroyed near the war's end, likely by air raids; only about 400 of its roughly 11,000 volumes survived, later forming the core of the new library.

The city provided the plot at the edge of the inner green belt for the postwar building. Its opening ceremony drew Chancellor Adenauer, Italian Education Minister Gaetano Martino, Ambassador Francesco Babuscio Rizzo and Archbishop Josef Frings, though the institute officially began operating only that autumn, once Germany and Italy had settled its legal status.

The ground floor holds a foyer, a long library hall, a reading/teaching room and offices, with white-washed corridor walls used for rotating exhibitions. The upper-floor theatre has full stage technology. The library focuses on Italian literature and area studies, including German-language works, while the programme features art, music, literature, theatre, current-affairs discussions and Italian language courses.