Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi

Syracuse, Italy

The Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi is one of the principal archaeological museums of Europe.

In 1780 the Bishop Alagona inaugurated the Museo del Seminario which became the Museo Civico near the archbishop's house in 1808. Subsequently, a royal decree of 1878 sanctioned the creation of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Siracusa, which was only inaugurated in 1886, in its historic location on the cathedral square.

From 1895 to 1934 Paolo Orsi directed the museum, but the increasing number of finds made a new space necessary at the current location in the garden of the villa Landolina. The new museum space, designed by the architect Franco Minissi was inaugurated in January 1988, with two floors of 9,0002. Initially only one floor and a basement of 3,000 m2 containing an auditorium were open to the public.

In 2006, a new exhibition area on the upper floor was inaugurated, dedicated to the classical period, but more space still remained unused. In 2014 a final expansion allowed the display of the Sarcophagus of Adelphia and other finds from the catacombs of Syracuse.

The museum contains artefacts from the prehistoric, Greek and Roman periods found in archaeological excavations in the city and other sites in Sicily.

Located next to the ancient Villa Landolina, outside the Museum, it is possible to visit the park opposite with finds from the Greek and Roman periods, as well as a non-Catholic cemetery with the tomb of the poet August von Platen.

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Details

Founded: 1886
Category: Museums in Italy

Rating

4.3/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Daniel Lee (58 days ago)
This museum has such a great collection and such terrible presentation that it feels like you're suffering death by terra cotta. there is so much in there that could be interesting! Yet the texts are really long and hard to understand and there's just case after case of vases. It's also not super well handled thematically, you don't know how the exhibits fit together. Considering the quality of the items on display it's a real shame. Some parts are interesting but you have to work to find out what's interesting about them - the curators won't help you there. Badly in need of some updates in how these excellent pieces are presented. Most of the focus in the explanations is on where the stuff was found rather than what it was used for, how it was made, basically why it's of interest to somebody who's not an archaeologist.
Stef (2 months ago)
The price was well worth it! So many ornaments, statues, tombs and archeological treasures. You would need at least an hour to see everything. Highly recommend ??
Alex Palmer (5 months ago)
Well worth 2.5 hours if you'd like to walk through all the rooms and read details on some of the more important items. Dont miss the excellent ancient coinage displays in the basement vault. The museum itself isn't physically great with a labyrinthine layout, lights out in some cases, broken video monitors, leaks (really) in the roof, and plaster falling down. Overlook this for the great artifacts.
Owen McMullen (5 months ago)
Overwhelmed by the amount of stuff to see here. The bronze age exhibition was fascinating and all the finds from the classical Greek period were impressive. A good idea to see this after visiting the less informative Archeological site.
Nikos Parastatidis (8 months ago)
The collection is enormous and covers thousands of years of life in Sicily and deserves 5 stars. The prehistoric collection is unique and offered plenty of thought provoking items. But the decades old curation with its warehouse volume of exhibits and the bad state of the museum itself (dirt and dust, many lights were not working) made this a less than stellar visit. A temporary exhibition with Mycenaean artefacts from Greece was outstanding.
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