The Museum is located inside the historic Palazzo Cerio, built in 1372 by Count Giacomo Arcucci, secretary to Queen Joanna I of Anjou, the first lord of Capri between 1371 and 1374. It was part of the Arcucci counts’ complex known in the Middle Ages as “Case Grandi,” which included Palazzo Farace and Palazzo Vanalesti. The Museum originates from the tireless activity of Dr. Ignazio Cerio. Born in Giulianova d’Abruzzo in 1840, Ignazio Cerio deeply loved the island so much that he lived there permanently from 1868 until his death in 1921. As the island’s general practitioner, this eclectic man, passionate about prehistory and natural sciences, collected shells, fossils, rocks, plants, and archaeological finds from Capri and other parts of the world for more than fifty years, promoting scientific studies and maintaining relationships with the most renowned scholars of the time. He established the Museum as a family museum from the second half of the 19th century, but it was formally instituted as a public museum with the founding of the Ignazio Cerio Center in 1949.
The Museum is made up of four rooms:
The geo-paleontological room offers the opportunity to understand the main stages of Capri’s geological evolution, from when, about 190 million years ago, the island was part of a submerged carbonate platform. It is possible to observe fossil organisms found in its rocks, and on display is the fauna of large mammals uncovered during excavation works of the Hotel Quisisana (1905) from the Middle Pleistocene (about 300,000 years ago) and the insular fauna testified by the Cervus tyrrhenicus of the Upper Pleistocene (about 75,000 years ago) found in the Grotta delle Felci, Grotta Vascio ’o Funno, and the Charterhouse. In addition to the material collected by Ignazio Cerio, new material was added in 2000 to complete the room’s installation.
In the palaeontological room, finds related to the oldest discoveries made by Cerio on the island are exhibited. You can admire the artifacts left by the first inhabitants of the Capri territory found at Quisisana and Grotta delle Felci, as well as traces of an obsidian cutting workshop, which testify to the island’s participation in a flourishing trade network, found at Le Parate.
The classical archaeology room displays, with typological and chronological order, finds from the Greek and Roman classical age (4th century BC – 2nd century AD) from the Benner-Pagano and Cerio collections, coming from various locations on the island, mostly grave goods and from the imperial villas of Capri.
The Biology room preserves numerous animal organisms, marine and terrestrial, from the Island of Capri. Besides the famous Blue Lizard of the Faraglioni, you can admire extremely rare or extinct marine shells, corals no longer found in the waters of Capri, and many other marine and terrestrial animal and plant species.
Information about Ignazio Cerio Center Museum
P.tta Ignazio Cerio, 5,
80073 Capri (Naples)
0818376681
centrocaprense@tin.it
https://www.centrocaprense.it
Source: MIBACT
