National Etruscan Museum

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Detail of clay group with mythological scene from the Theban cycle, from the area of temple A at Pyrgi, mid-5th century BC.

This page is on the museum itself, for the architectural history of the house see Villa Giulia.

The National Etruscan Museum (Italian: Museo Nazionale Etrusco) is a museum of the Etruscan civilization housed in the Villa Giulia in Rome, Italy. The museum is open until 7:30 pm, except Mondays.

[edit] History

The Villa was built by the popes and remained their property until 1870 when, in the wake of the Risorgimento and the demise of the Papal States, it became the property of the Kingdom of Italy. The Museum was founded in 1889 as part of the same nationalistic movement, with the aim of collecting together all the pre-Roman antiquities of Latium, southern Etruria and Umbria belonging to the Etruscan and Faliscan civilizations, and has been housed in the villa since the beginning of the 20th century.

[edit] Collections

The museum's most famous single treasure is the terracotta funerary monument, the almost life-size Bride and Groom (the so-called Sarcofago degli Sposi) reclining as if they were at a dinner party.

Other remains held are:

The Etruscan-Phoenician Pyrgi Tablets.
The Apollo of Veii.
The Cista Ficoroni.
A reconstructed frieze displaying Kreugas eating the brain of his enemy.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia

[edit] Bibliography

Anna Maria Sgubini Moretti (editions), The Villa Giulia National Etruscan Museum, L'Erma et Ingegneria per la Cultura, Rome, 2001 (ISBN 88-8265-012-X)