The National Etruscan Museum ( it, Museo Nazionale Etrusco) is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

of the

Etruscan civilization The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roug ...

, housed in the Villa Giulia in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

History

The villa was built for

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

Julius III, for whom it was named. It remained in papal property until 1870, when, in the wake of the Risorgimento and the demise of the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

, it became the property of the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

. The museum was founded in 1889 as part of the same nationalistic movement, with the aim of collecting together all the pre-

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

antiquities of

Latium Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Definition Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil ( Old Latium) on w ...

, southern

Etruria Etruria () was a region of Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what are now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and northern and western Umbria. Etruscan Etruria The ancient people of Etruria are identified as Etruscans. Thei ...

and

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

belonging to the Etruscan and Faliscan civilizations, and has been housed in the villa since the beginning of the 20th century.

Collections

The museum's most famous single treasure is the

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terra ...

funerary monument, the almost life-size ''Bride and Groom'' (the so-called '' Sarcofago degli Sposi'', or ''Sarcophagus of the Spouses''), reclining as if they were at a dinner party. Other objects held are: * The Etruscan-Phoenician

Pyrgi Tablets The Pyrgi Tablets (dated ) are three golden plates inscribed with a bilingual Phoenician– Etruscan dedicatory text. They are the oldest historical source documents from pre-Roman Italy and are rare examples of texts in these languages. They w ...

* The

Apollo of Veii The Apollo of Veii is a life-size painted terracotta Etruscan statue of Apollo (''Aplu''), designed to be placed at the highest part of a temple. The statue was discovered in the Portonaccio sanctuary of ancient Veii, Latium, in what is now ...

* The

Cista A cista is a box or basket used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Etruscans and Romans for various practical and mystical purposes. Purpose and usage The ''cista'' or ''cistella'' was at first thought be a wicker basket used for holding fruits ...

Ficoroni * A reconstructed frieze displaying

Tydeus Tydeus (; Ancient Greek: Τυδεύς ''Tūdeus'') was an Aetolian hero in Greek mythology, belonging to the generation before the Trojan War. He was one of the Seven against Thebes, and the father of Diomedes, who is frequently known by the ...

eating the brain of his enemy Melanippus * The Tita Vendia vase * The Sarpedon Krater (or, the " Euphronios Krater") - this is now at the Archaeological Museum of Cerveteri, it was at the Villa Giulia from 2008 to 2014 * The

Centaur of Vulci The Centaur of Vulci is a statue of the Etruscan Orientalising period, discovered in Vulci near Etruscan Viterbo, now in the collection of the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome. History The statue was discovered in a private to ...

* Phoenician metal bowls

References

External links

Museo Nazionale Etrusco information
* 1889 establishments in Italy Archaeological museums in Italy Art museums and galleries in Rome Museums established in 1889 National museums of Italy Rome Q. III Pinciano {{italy-museum-stub

History

Collections

See also

References

External links