Type:

Luoghi della cultura; Ente/Istituzione

Category:

Archaeology museums; Museums of natural history and natural sciences; Ethnography and anthropology museums

Inaugurated on 5 May 1991, the Museum is housed in the reconstructed premises of the mediaeval Rocca Monaldeschi della Cervara; since 2001 it has been the most important museum in the museum system of Lake Bolsena. It comprises three exhibition floors and an external lapidary. It illustrates the formation of the territory (volcanology) and the most ancient phases of human settlement in the lake area, from prehistory to protohistory, from the Etruscan period to the Roman phase, up to the Mediaeval and Renaissance periods. Since May 2011, a large fresh water aquarium has been set up on the lower floor of the museum, where the most characteristic fish, crustaceans, amphibians and molluscs species of Lake Bolsena and the rivers of the area are presented in an educational context. Noteworthy are the materials from the Iron Age village of Gran Carro (9th-8th century B.C.); Orientalizing era funerary objects from the necropolis of Capriola (7th century B.C.); a pottery seat known as the Trono delle pantere (Panthers’ throne) from the ancient Volsinii (3rd-2nd century B.C.); Mediaeval and Renaissance ceramics found in the ditches of the Rocca Monaldeschi.