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Abstract: Featuring a city museums seems to be part of a cultural offer the local bodies have to supply about the main questions of contemporary city. As a matter of fact, full citizenship includes right of knowledge, even in its relationship to urban and political strategies. In the nineteenth century, Italy was discovering the value of a national culture and the need to form a new collective identity. In this context, civic museum raised as a token of such a great effort. Today, due to the relevance of urban phenomena, a challenging goal is to identify structures suitable for such a new demand of knowledge. In 1998, the Municipality of Modena put in motion the activity of the Offi ce for Research and Documentation on Urban History, aiming at researching and spreading data in the fields of architecture, urban planning and contemporary projects. Stress was put on the relationship between memory, identity and innovation. Moreover, special attention was paid to the emerging theme of sustainability. That happens in particular from 2001 onwards, within the frame of the national project "The sustainable cities. History, nature, environment" and in connection with the making of the Historic Atlas of Urban Environment of Modena. In this perspective, an interdisciplinary workshop has been started up with the goal of improving the instruments of knowledge. Such an aim concerns both the past and the crucial problems of today.