Located in the most central area of Assisi, the museum area extends beneath the current Piazza del Comune, the city hub where the Temple of Minerva still dominates today and where the main medieval public buildings face.
The archaeological area corresponds to the so-called central terrace, one of the monumental platforms built in the 2nd century BC simultaneously with the planning of the Roman city of Asisium. The terrace, traditionally considered the city’s forum due to its central position, is dominated by the overlying Temple of Minerva, one of the most intact works of Roman religious architecture, now visible on the northern side of the square.
The route, currently named “Journey into the Ancient Square of Assisi,” begins at the former crypt of San Niccolò, home since the 19th century to most of the inscriptions and urns found in the city and surrounding territory. Through a corridor covered by a glass walkway, allowing appreciation of the original underlying pavement, visitors walk alongside the temple’s retaining wall, along which runs a monumental inscription recalling the works carried out in 30 BC by the highest magistrates (quattuorviri) of the municipality of Asisium. On the opposite wall are placed funerary steles and, at the end of a short passage, the base that supported the statues of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, sons of Jupiter. Continuing further, one reaches the so-called Vaulted Hall where restored marble statues are displayed, including that of a semi-nude male figure from the 1st century AD discovered in the area’s excavations.
Information about Roman Forum and Archaeological Collection
Via Portica, 2
06081 Assisi (Perugia)
0758155234
edu.assisi@hotmail.it
Source: MIBACT
