The National Museum of Rome (Museo Nazionale Romano in Italian) is a set of museums in Rome, Italy, split between various branches across the city. It was founded in 1889 and inaugurated in 1890, during the Risorgimento, with the aim of collecting antiquities from between the 5th century BC to the 3rd century AD.
Its first collection was formed from the archeological collections of the Museo Kircheriano and the numerous new discoveries in Rome during the city-planning after it became the new capital of the new Kingdom of Italy. This was initially meant to be displayed in a 'Museo Tiberino' (never realised), but in 1901 the State granted the institution the Villa Ludovisi and the important national collection of ancient sculptures.
Its base was established in the 16th century cloister built by Michelangelo off the baths of Diocletian, still its main base. These buildings' adaptation to their new purpose began for the 1911 Exposition and completed in the 1930s.
In 1990s, in a radical transformation, the museum's collections were divided between four different sites.
Its first collection was formed from the archeological collections of the Museo Kircheriano and the numerous new discoveries in Rome during the city-planning after it became the new capital of the new Kingdom of Italy. This was initially meant to be displayed in a 'Museo Tiberino' (never realised), but in 1901 the State granted the institution the Villa Ludovisi and the important national collection of ancient sculptures.
Its base was established in the 16th century cloister built by Michelangelo off the baths of Diocletian, still its main base. These buildings' adaptation to their new purpose began for the 1911 Exposition and completed in the 1930s.
In 1990s, in a radical transformation, the museum's collections were divided between four different sites.
Crypta Balbi
History of the building
In 1981, digging on a derelict city-centre site in the Campus Martius between the churches of Santa Caterina dei Funari and San Stanislao dei Polacchi, Daniel Manacorda and his team discovered the colonnaded quadriporticus of the Theatre of Lucius Cornelius Balbus, the nearby statio annonae and evidence of later, medieval occupation of the site. These are presented in this branch, inaugurated in 2001, which houses the archaeological remains and finds from that dig (including a stucco arch from the porticus).
Collections
As well as new material from the excavations, objects in this museum come from
the collections of the former Kircherian Museum
the Gorga and Betti collections
numismatic material from the Gnecchi collections and the collection of Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoia,
collections from the Roman Forum, in particular a fresco and marble architrave from the late-1930s Fascist deconstruction of the medieval church of Sant'Adriano in the Curia senatus.
Museum of the Palazzo Venezia
the Capitoline Museums
the communal Antiquarium of Rome
frescoes removed in 1960 from the church of Santa Maria in Via Lata
Basement
The archaeological remains, guided by a member of museum staff.
Ground floor
The first section ("Archaeology and history of an urban landscape") presents the results of the excavations, and puts them in the context of the history of the area. As well as the remains from the site itself, this section also tells of the Monastero di Santa Maria Domine Rose (begun nearby in the 8th century), of medieval merchants' and craftsmen's homes, of the Conservatorio di Santa Caterina dei Funari (built in the mid-16th century by Ignatius of Loyola to house the daughters of Roman prostitutes) and of the Botteghe Obscura.
First floor
A second section (" Rome from antiquity to the middle ages.") is the Museum of Medieval Rome and illustrates the life and transformations of Rome as a whole between the 5th and 10th centuries AD.
History of the building
In 1981, digging on a derelict city-centre site in the Campus Martius between the churches of Santa Caterina dei Funari and San Stanislao dei Polacchi, Daniel Manacorda and his team discovered the colonnaded quadriporticus of the Theatre of Lucius Cornelius Balbus, the nearby statio annonae and evidence of later, medieval occupation of the site. These are presented in this branch, inaugurated in 2001, which houses the archaeological remains and finds from that dig (including a stucco arch from the porticus).
Collections
As well as new material from the excavations, objects in this museum come from
the collections of the former Kircherian Museum
the Gorga and Betti collections
numismatic material from the Gnecchi collections and the collection of Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoia,
collections from the Roman Forum, in particular a fresco and marble architrave from the late-1930s Fascist deconstruction of the medieval church of Sant'Adriano in the Curia senatus.
Museum of the Palazzo Venezia
the Capitoline Museums
the communal Antiquarium of Rome
frescoes removed in 1960 from the church of Santa Maria in Via Lata
Basement
The archaeological remains, guided by a member of museum staff.
Ground floor
The first section ("Archaeology and history of an urban landscape") presents the results of the excavations, and puts them in the context of the history of the area. As well as the remains from the site itself, this section also tells of the Monastero di Santa Maria Domine Rose (begun nearby in the 8th century), of medieval merchants' and craftsmen's homes, of the Conservatorio di Santa Caterina dei Funari (built in the mid-16th century by Ignatius of Loyola to house the daughters of Roman prostitutes) and of the Botteghe Obscura.
First floor
A second section (" Rome from antiquity to the middle ages.") is the Museum of Medieval Rome and illustrates the life and transformations of Rome as a whole between the 5th and 10th centuries AD.
