Museo "Ferrante Rittatore Vonwiller"

Civic archaeological museum in Farnese devoted to the prehistoric settlement of the Fiora valley, with Etruscan-Roman and medieval sections.

Opening hoursFree admission

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About the museum

The museum is named after the archaeologist Ferrante Rittatore Vonwiller (1919–1976), a scholar of the prehistory of the Maremma and the Fiora valley, who in 1938 identified the Bronze Age settlement of Sorgenti della Nova, still the subject of university excavations.

The collection was founded in 1980 and took on the character of a true museum about ten years later, bringing together two distinct groups: the materials of the Bronze Age village of Sorgenti della Nova and the medieval and Renaissance ceramics recovered from the butti (rubbish pits) in the tuff cavities of the historic centre. In March 2003 the museum was inaugurated with a new display in the former grain depot (ex ammasso del grano).

The exhibition occupies one large hall organised in three sections: prehistory and protohistory, with the history of the settlement of the Fiora valley; the Etruscan-Roman section, with the finds from the fortified settlement of Rofalco and the nearby necropoleis, dating from the 5th to the early 3rd century BC; and the medieval and Renaissance section, with painted majolica and everyday objects from the butti.

Highlights

Materials from the late Bronze Age settlement of Sorgenti della Nova
Finds from the Etruscan fortified settlement of Rofalco and the nearby necropoleis
Medieval and Renaissance majolica from the butti of the historic centre
Single hall in the former grain depot, with the 2003 display

Permanent exhibition

Collezione permanente: preistoria, età etrusco-romana, Medioevo e Rinascimento – Route in three sections on the settlement of the Fiora valley, from Sorgenti della Nova to Rofalco and to the medieval butti of the historic centre.

Founded: 1980
Operated by: Comune di Farnese