The art gallery originated in 1838, with its headquarters in the Palazzo della Missione, when the works of art that remained in the Municipality after the Napoleonic suppressions were brought together in the public library. Subsequent increases occurred for purchases and donations. In 1922 the Pinacoteca and Museums were moved to the current site built in 1722 as the Hospital of the House of God on a project by Giuseppe Merenda and therefore known as Palazzo del Merenda.

The evocative central hall is embellished with large paintings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by Guercino, Cagnacci, Cignani, Maratta.

A wing of the hall houses the Quadreria Piancastelli, an anthology of Romagna painting from the sixteenth century to the beginnings of Mannerism, with works by Palmezzano, Luca Longhi, Innocenzo da Imola, Sebastiano Menzocchi.