Gregorian Etruscan Museum

The museum was founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1837 and mainly collects items from 1828 that were found in the excavations of the ancient Etruscan cities of Southern Italy (today northern Lazio) part of the Papal States.  With the end of the Papal States in 1870, ceased territorial jurisdictions of the museum, which will no longer be increased by excavation findings, but only with sporadic acquisitions of archaeological collections of extraordinary importance such as the Falcioni Collection (1898), the donation of Benedetto Guglielmi in 1935, Mario Astarita in 1967 and the purchase of the collection of Giacinto Guglielmi in 1987.

The Museum hosts findings between the IX and I Centuries BC of the Iron Age, which were until the progressive and definitive account of Etruscan towns that formed the foundation of the Roman state.
The Millennial history of the Etruscan people, documents flourishing crafts of a special artistic civilization by their ceramics, bronze, silver and gold.

An important section of the museum is the great collection of Greek vases, but found in Etruscan Necropolis and also Italioti vases (made in the cities of the Southern Italy by a Greek colony), which allows you to retrace the history of ancient paintings by renowned achievements of potters and ceramics.

Another section of the museums is dedicated to Roman antiquity (Antiquarium Romanum), with artifacts such as bronze, glass, terracotta and ceramic for common use, all from Rome and the region of Lazio.  The Museum is set in the Palace of Innocenzo VIII (1484-1492) close to the building of Pio IV (1559-1565), where you can admire parts of the original decoration and the frescoes of Federico Barocci, Federico Zuccari (1563), Santi di Tito and Niccolo’ Circignani of Pomarance (1564).