Ostiense Museum

The Ostiense Museum was established in 1865 by the archaeologist Pietro Ercole Visconti to exhibit the finds that were being discovered in the excavations of Ostia Antica, initially located in the Castle of Julius II. For this purpose, the “Casone del Sale”, a warehouse built in the sixteenth century, was renovated; an inscription in honor of Pius IX, placed on the current facade of the Museum, celebrates the conclusion of the works, which took place in 1878.

The Museum reached its current shape in the 1960s. There are nine rooms that can be visited and contain numerous artifacts, including: the large sculptural group of Mitra Tauroctonos, dating back to 140-145 AD, the Dodekatheon, a small circular altar with the twelve gods of Olympus; the statue of Perseus with the head of Medusa, a work of the Flavian-Hadrianic age, the statue of the emperor Trajan, in the uniform of general of the army and the funerary statue of Giulia Procula, from the necropolis of Porto. Among the other finds of particular interest, a sarcophagus with scenes from the Iliad from the II-III century AD, from the Pianabella necropolis stands out. There are also several Roman portraits, clay and marble tables with representations of arts and crafts, furnishings of different kinds and objects in glass, ivory and bronze, funeral and domestic wall paintings, polychrome mosaics and a big marble decoration from a building found near Porta Marina.

Photo credits: Courtesy of Ostiense Museum official site