Музей History of the Archeological Museum of Orbetello

A first collection of ancient objects at Orbetello was accomplished by the honorary inspector Pietro Raveggi, who founded the civic antiquarium in 1923.  The initial nucleus, housed in the city library, was principally comprised of objects discovered by Raveggi himself, during his occasional researches (a notable one was that of 1925, at Brilletto), but it was truly enriched when the collections of the De Witt and Del Rosso were acquired.

At Raveggi’s death, in 1951, the antiquarium fell into abandon, and in the following year the Dottoressa Maria Santangelo was given the task of drawing up a new inventory, and of carrying out a new organization of the collection.

1954 saw the publication of the first catalog of Orbetello’s antiquarium, inaugurated on the eleventh of September of the same year in its new venue in the Palazzo Pretorio.  In these years the museum was expanded, thanks to the acquisition of several bucchero ware items from Chiarone, and of Roman remains excavated during works on the Pertuso canal.

Nonetheless, with the passing of the years, the museum suffered neglect, and it eventually was closed, in 1974.

In 1990 the Superintendence for the Archeological Heritage of Tuscany began a cataloging and reorganization project of the museum’s materials, in preparation for a reopening.  In 2001, moreover, a large number of archeological materials were recovered, following the demolition of a basement wall in the Palazzo Pretorio.

Finally, on the 30th of July 2004, after thirty years of closure, the new Archeological Museum was inaugurated, housed in the upper level of the former Guzman munitions depot, a historic edifice built by the Spaniards in 1692, and used to store weapons and explosives.

The exhibits of the Archeological Museum of Orbetello are displayed in a series of showcases arranged on the upper floor of the Munitions Depot, within a single vast hall, and they follow a chronological sequence, subdivided according to thematic criteria.

The showcases are housed in large exhibit consoles, flanked by horizontal informational panels.