Description
The Museo di Antichità is Turin's archaeological museum, heir to the Regio Museo di Antichità founded in 1724 and therefore one of the oldest archaeological museums in Europe. Its collections are in the Archaeological Gallery of the Manica Nuova of the Royal Palace, next to the remains of the Roman theater.
The museum has three sections. The Archaeological Gallery brings together Greek and Roman statues, Cypriot, prehistoric, protohistoric and Etruscan antiquities, and pottery from Greece and Magna Graecia, with the historic collections of the House of Savoy.
The Archaeology of the Territory section tells, through objects and excavations, the story of the settled population of Piedmont, from the Mesolithic and Paleolithic onward. Also tied to the museum is the Marengo treasure, a group of Roman silver pieces discovered at Marengo.
The Archaeology of Turin section is devoted to the city's long history. Its rooms look out over the remains of the theater of ancient Augusta Taurinorum, and the mosaics found in the Casa del Delfino, in the Quadrilatero Romano, enrich the collection.
The first collection of antiquities is owed to Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, who in 1572 placed sculptures, a library and a museum in the Ducal Theater. His successor Charles Emmanuel I expanded it with objects from Piedmont and the Savoy states.
That collection had a hard life: in 1658 a fire destroyed the gallery that housed it and another, in 1811, destroyed the one that replaced it. All that remains of that collection is a brief inventory from 1631.
In 1723 demolitions in the center of Turin brought to light many remains of ancient Augusta Taurinorum. Victor Amadeus II entrusted the inscribed stones to Scipione Maffei, and in 1724 the Regio Museo di Antichità was born, in the building of the Royal University.
The French carried it off, and returned only part of it in 1815. From 1832 the antiquities were united with the Egyptian Museum in the Palace of the Academy of Sciences, until the separation of 1940. In 2022 the collections were reinstalled in the Archaeological Gallery.
The museum has three sections. The Archaeological Gallery brings together Greek and Roman statues, Cypriot, prehistoric, protohistoric and Etruscan antiquities, and pottery from Greece and Magna Graecia, with the historic collections of the House of Savoy.
The Archaeology of the Territory section tells, through objects and excavations, the story of the settled population of Piedmont, from the Mesolithic and Paleolithic onward. Also tied to the museum is the Marengo treasure, a group of Roman silver pieces discovered at Marengo.
The Archaeology of Turin section is devoted to the city's long history. Its rooms look out over the remains of the theater of ancient Augusta Taurinorum, and the mosaics found in the Casa del Delfino, in the Quadrilatero Romano, enrich the collection.
The first collection of antiquities is owed to Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, who in 1572 placed sculptures, a library and a museum in the Ducal Theater. His successor Charles Emmanuel I expanded it with objects from Piedmont and the Savoy states.
That collection had a hard life: in 1658 a fire destroyed the gallery that housed it and another, in 1811, destroyed the one that replaced it. All that remains of that collection is a brief inventory from 1631.
In 1723 demolitions in the center of Turin brought to light many remains of ancient Augusta Taurinorum. Victor Amadeus II entrusted the inscribed stones to Scipione Maffei, and in 1724 the Regio Museo di Antichità was born, in the building of the Royal University.
The French carried it off, and returned only part of it in 1815. From 1832 the antiquities were united with the Egyptian Museum in the Palace of the Academy of Sciences, until the separation of 1940. In 2022 the collections were reinstalled in the Archaeological Gallery.