Naturalistic Archaeological Museum in Vicenza

Il Museo Naturalistico Archeologico di Vicenza: come arrivare, la collezione esposta, la storia, gli orari, i contatti, il costo e i prezzi per l'acquisto dei biglietti e le informazioni utili per la visita.

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Naturalistic Archaeological Museum - C.a’ S. Corona, 4 - Vicenza

(Foto: Roby 48, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Archaeological Naturalistic Museum is housed in the cloisters of the former convent annexed to the Church of Santa Corona, in the historic city centre. It was inaugurated in 1991. It is divided into a naturalistic section and an archaeological one and is part of the circuit of the Civic Museums of Vicenza.

The naturalistic section of the Archaeological Naturalistic Museum

The itinerary illustrates the birth and evolution of the Vicenza area and the Berici Hills through sections dedicated to geology - for the history of the area - and to morphology - for the formation of the area. Furthermore, there are also sections dedicated to the different environments and ecosystems that make up the area to help the visitor understand the biodiversity of the Vicenza area.

Finds on display

- ornithological collection
- malacological collections
- osteological collection
- herbarium of the naturalist and archaeologist Paolo Lioy
- entomological collection

The archaeological section of the Archaeological Naturalistic Museum

This part of the Naturalistic Archaeological Museum of Vicenza begins the journey backwards from the Paleolithic of Vicenza (250,000 BC) up to the arrival of the Longobards after the fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy at the hands of the Byzantines following the Greek-Gothic war (half of the VI century AD).

Therefore, starting from the broad chronological parable of the Paleolithic (250,000-9,500 BC), in which we see the birth and evolution of the first artifacts and the use of fire, passing through the three millennia of the Mesolithic (6,500 BC) and of the Neolithic (3,400 BC), which exacerbate this technical knowledge in a by now modern man, we are approaching the formation of more heterogeneous social groups of the Copper Age (2,300 BC) and the Bronze Age (950 BC) which were able to produce a culture of the afterlife reflected in the formation of a sepulchral culture witnessed in the museum by remarkable finds.

With the Iron Age in Vicenza (950-49 BC) we already entered a literate culture attested also by the first epigraphic mention of the Venetian ethnic group with the term Venetkens. The adherence without confrontation, for precise mythological affinities between Rome and the Veneto, to the Republic of Rome, with the acquisition of Roman citizenship (49 BC) and the consequent long journey in the Roman Empire up to the fifth century, produces signs in Vicenza still widely recognizable today in its urban planning (the theatre).

Of the Longobard period (568-850 AD) the necropolises of Sovizzo and Dueville are important for the museum, as they have yielded precious finds of daily and military life of a proudly warlike people descended from Northern Europe.

Finds on display

- thin and sharp flakes of the Levallois type from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic
- points, scrapers, flint and bone tools
- Neolithic pottery vases and glasses
- copper arrowheads, ax heads and daggers from the Copper Age
- bronze pins, knives and axes from the Bronze Age
- stems from Villa Guiccioli and from Isola Vicentina
- embossed votive plates
- Iron Age alphabet tablet
- Roman funerary, votive and public inscriptions
- figurative mosaic from Piazza Biade (4th century BC)
- spearheads, shield bosses, swords of the Lombard period (from 568 AD)
- combs, knives, rings and brooches

Useful information for the visit