Civic Archaeological Museum

Civic Archaeological Museum

An obligatory stop for archaeology enthusiasts of the Etruscan, Roman and early medieval periods is the Civic Archaeological Museum of Fiesole, custodian of precious artifacts that are among the most representative of the city’s history in that period.

The Museum, founded in 1878 and initially housed inside the then Palazzo Pretorio, was born as a result of the interest aroused above all by the rediscovery of the Roman theater and developed thanks also to the cultural ferment of nearby Florence, from which came some of the most decisive personalities for Fiesole archaeology, such as Luigi Adriano Milani and Edoardo Galli. It was they who defined the original arrangement of the collections within the building overlooking the Archaeological Area, which still houses the Museum, specially built for the purpose and opened to the public in 1914.

The museum exhibits artifacts from the Villanovan, Etruscan, Roman and medieval periods, with special emphasis on the Lombard period. Among the must-see exhibits are a bronze animal torso from the Etruscan period, Fiesole stelae, a Roman lead cista, reconstruction and grave goods from Longobard tombs, and ceramics from Magna Graecia in the Costantini Collection. Major reorganization and museographic rearrangements took place in 1957 by Guglielmo Maetzke (Soprintendenza all’Antichità d’Etruria) and in the 1980s, when museum spaces were expanded.