It is the oldest museum institution in Ferrara and was inaugurated in 1735 at Palazzo Paradiso by the will of Marquis Ercole Bevilacqua. Since 1984, it has been located in the former Church of Santa Libera. The original core of the collection, composed of ancient marbles scattered in the city and surrounding territory, sometimes reused in religious buildings, such as the sarcophagus of Annia Faustina from the church of S. Stefano, has been enriched over time following 18th-century donations from the Baruffaldi, Scalabrini, and Riminaldi families as well as more recent acquisitions, including the sarcophagus of Aurelia Eutychia, certainly one of the most important examples from Cisalpine Gaul.
Local materials are supplemented by inscribed marbles from various origins, a clear marker of the collecting taste of the House of Este. The exhibition route opens with the epigraphs donated by Ercole d’Este and Ercole Bevilacqua, respectively, the stele of the Caesii and that of Antonia Valeria. It continues with a topographic itinerary consisting of funerary monuments, steles, sarcophagi, and milestones. Among the stone materials on display are the sarcophagus of the Aurelii, returned from Voghenza, the altar of Fronto, and the milestone of Octavius, coming from the Po di Primaro. Finally, documents referring to the Po di Volano and the core of the steles of Gambulaga are of particular interest.
Information about Civic Museums of Ancient Art – Civic Lapidary
Via Campo Sabbionario,1,
44121 Ferrara (Ferrara)
0532 641 78
arteantica@comune.fe.it
Source: MIBACT
