The museum is in the Etruscan town of Tuscania, a very important strategic crossroads of the Tuscia Area. The museum is housed in the Franciscan convent founded in 1247, adjacent to the Church of S. Maria del Riposo. The first section of the Museum was inaugurated in 1988; it consists of 4 rooms on the ground floor where the noble funerary complexes of the Hellenistic age (4th-2nd century BC) are displayed. The museum houses a Renaissance-era cloister frescoed inside with scenes from the life of San Francesco d’Assisi, the frescoes can be dated from the 1600s. Of particular importance are the funerary complexes from three rock tombs of the Curunas family: next to the nenfro sarcophagi, with lids restituting the figure of the deceased in the round, there are Faliscan, Ceretane, Vulcenti and/or Tarquinian, Chiusine and local ceramics. Of particular importance are the bronze materials associated with the banquet or the female world.
In 1997, 2 rooms on the upper floor were opened to the public, one dedicated to the history of the convent and the ancient center of Tuscania, the other to the oldest evidence from the necropolises of the area (7th century BC). As proof of the prestige achieved by the inhabitants of the city in the archaic period we find the slabs that decorated buildings from the Necropolis of Ara del Tufo and the precious objects found in the burial chambers of the tumuli of Guado Cinto.
A unicum, in the vast landscape of rock necropolises, is represented by the Casa con Portico tomb in the Pian di Mola necropolis, which offers a model of private/sacral building from the 6th century. B.C. The museum exhibition concludes with the opulent grave goods of the aristocracy of the Hellenistic age, testifying to the economic prosperity of the area. The other Tuscan necropolises are called delle Scalette, Peschiera, Madonna dell’Olivo, Pian delle Rusciare.
The director of the museum is the archaeologist Sara De Angelis
The National Archaeological Museum of Tuscania is open to the public every day, except Mondays, from 09:30 to 18:00.
A room in the museum is dedicated to medieval and early Renaissance ceramics, for enthusiasts and onlookers this is another reason to go to the small Tuscania museum.
Admission is always free, even for groups. No reservation is required.
Address: Largo Mario Moretti, 1, 01017 Tuscania VT, Italy