Museo del Fiume Bacchiglione

About the museum

The Museo del Fiume Bacchiglione is housed in the castle of San Martino della Vaneza, in Cervarese Santa Croce, which the Papafava-Carraresi family donated to the Provincia di Padova for cultural purposes. The oldest part of the complex is the tower, built around the year 1000 for defence and raised in the Carrara period. In Venetian times the castle became a river port on the trade route between Padua and Vicenza.

The finds come from the riverbed. In the seventies the ArcheoClub di Padova, the Club Sommozzatori di Padova and the cooperative ArcheoSub-Metamauco collected the materials, which often surfaced during sand extraction or underwater surveys. From 1990 the Soprintendenza Archeologica del Veneto carried out systematic investigations, and in 1995 the first exhibition project was completed.

On the ground floor two large dugout canoes of oak from the early Middle Ages can be admired. They were found in 1972 near the Selvazzano bridge, together with a large hydrographic map. The first floor houses the archaeological section, with material from the Late Neolithic to the Roman imperial age, including bronze weapons from Creola, Iron Age pottery, a small bronze of a warrior on horseback, a lebes (bronze cauldron) with a Venetic inscription, and Roman coins and antefixes.

Highlights

• Two early medieval dugout canoes made of oak
• Bronze weapons from Creola (Bronze Age)
• Small bronze of a warrior on horseback
• Lebes with a Venetic inscription
• Castle of San Martino della Vaneza on the Bacchiglione

Permanent exhibition

• Collezione permanente del Museo del Fiume Bacchiglione – Geomorphological section and archaeological section with medieval dugout canoes and finds from the Neolithic to the Roman period.

Operated by

Provincia di Padova

Visitors per year

approx. 15,000

Admission & discounts

Prices according to the Museionline portal (December 2024). An older archaeological listing gave lower rates and free admission for children under 8.

Accessibility

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Kids & families

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Getting there & parking

Amenities & dining

• Museum shop

There is a bookshop and toilets.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Plan your visit