The Department was instituted in 1916 as a Topographic Cabinet in the Engineers’ School of Application. In 1930 it became the Institute of Geodesy and Topography and, in 1975, as the Institute of Geodesy, Topography and Photogrammetry, it became a part of the Faculty of Engineering. In 1997 it was incorporated in the Department of Civil Engineering. It owns 40 topographical instruments from the second half of the 19th century. Two astronomical instruments coming from the Pisa Institute of Astronomy are also included in the collection.