Since its founding in 1841, the Vesuvian Observatory has been a destination not only for scholars but also for local and foreign visitors. Around 1970, following the construction just downhill of a building better suited to the needs of modern research, the so-called historic headquarters naturally became the place intended for the preservation of valuable mineralogical, instrumental, and artistic collections, as well as a rich historical library. The Museum hosts a permanent exhibition that leads visitors through a fascinating journey into the world of volcanoes. It starts with the description of the various types of eruptions and their danger, culminating in the real-time observation of seismic and geochemical data recorded by the Vesuvian Observatory’s monitoring network. All this is supported by videos, illustrations, collections of rocks and minerals, historical instruments, books, and paintings. The Museum houses ancient scientific instruments used by scientists and researchers over the centuries, some of which are of exceptional historical importance, such as Luigi Palmieri’s seismograph. A selection of these instruments is exhibited in the Mercalli and Wiechert rooms of the Exhibition. Since 2009, the service building constructed in the 1970s, after the monitoring room and research staff moved to Naples, has hosted the exhibition “Vulcanica – a multimedia journey into the world of volcanoes.” Through explanatory panels about Italian volcanoes, audiovisual contributions, a multimedia table, and a small projection room for 3D films, the exhibit guides visitors through the active volcanoes in Italy, their dangers, and the monitoring techniques applied to surveil the precursory phenomena of eruptions.
Information about the Vesuvian Observatory Museum
Via dell’Osservatorio snc,
80026 Ercolano (Naples)
0816108483
info@ov.ingv.it
https://www.ov.ingv.it
Source: MIBACT
