Lanuvino Civic Museum

The Lanuvino Civic Museum was established following the discovery of archaeological finds in the late nineteenth century, which took place in Piazza della Maddalena during the construction of the Palazzo Comunale, and it was precisely in the premises on the ground floor of the same building that, from 1913, it originally found its seat Dismissed due to structural damage caused by the last world war, it has returned to its original location since 2001 to preserve and enhance the archaeological remains from the territory of ancient Lanuvium and medieval Civita Lavinia. Since then the museum collections have been enriched both with the material found during the excavations carried out by the Civic Museum in collaboration with the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Lazio and Southern Etruria and the Specialization School of Sapienza-University of Rome, and with the material recovered from the Tax Police Unit of Rome of the Guardia di Finanza in the important discovery of the archeol site ogico di Pantanacci which took place at the end of the summer of 2012. In 2013, the Widespread Museum of Lanuvio was established with the inauguration of a new museum space located in Piazza Antonino Pio n. 24 (a few steps from the Town Hall), called the Sala della Stipe Votiva in the Pantanacci area. In 2017, there was an expansion of the section relating to the finds from the same stipe and, in addition, those from the Ajello stipe, with the opening of another exhibition space, this time located in Via Roma n. 1a, and called the Sala della Grotta del Serpente (of which the statue of the III century BC, some portions in peperino are preserved inside) .The opening of a section dedicated to the fifteenth century called “The Castle of Civita Lavinia - Stendhal prison” housed inside the Medieval Tower overlooking Piazza Carlo Fontana; the construction of the Archaeological Route of the Sanctuary of Giunone Sospita (which connects various terraces of Colle San Lorenzo where, between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, the remains of the Temple of Juno and the Portico cd degli Antonini); the inauguration of an exhibition, now permanent, set up in the Sala delle Colonne located on the ground floor of Villa Sforza-Cesarini (built in the middle of the sanctuary area at the beginning of the twentieth century), entitled "Sacra Nemora - the culture of the Sacred in sanctuarial contexts in Albana area. Archaeological finds and recoveries of the Guardia di Finanza "organized by the Lanuvino Civic Museum in collaboration with MiBACT and the Rome Tax Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza. Returning to the Civic Museum, the various rooms in which it is divided, host a Roman and pre- Roman, an epigraphic section, a section dedicated to daily life in antiquity and, since 2015, a section dedicated to the temple of Juno Sospita. This last section houses a model commissioned by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, reproducing on a scale of 1:20 the Templar area from which the protohistoric vases and grave goods (terracotta artefacts and bronze jewels) come from, exhibited in the same room. All sections are accompanied by a series of explanatory panels, historical photographs and more recent photographs (including some aerial shots taken with the drone) regarding the most significant finds and monuments, reconstructive hypotheses and in-depth information sheets that allow us to to approach the ancient world with simplicity and to freely enjoy the museum collections.

In order to promote and disseminate the history of the Museum and the territory to which it belongs, guided tours are carried out to the various museum and archaeological sites of Lanuvio, as well as numerous educational, research and training activities in close collaboration with the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of the Lazio and Southern Etruria. For the same purpose, a series of brochures, volumes and publications of a scientific nature have been produced such as the Series of Quaderni of the Civic Museum of Lanuvio, whose scientific committee can include scholars of international prestige. playful and technological, in addition to a series of documentaries translated into various languages, mini-videos have also been produced (easily available on the web) and an audio guide in the app that can be downloaded for free from the Iz platform.