MUNDA – Museo nazionale d’Abruzzo, L’Aquila

At the Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo, established in the early 1950s, the Aquilan collections of the Civic Museum and the Diocesan Museum merged to form, through mutual integration, a single complex, highly representative of Abruzzo art and notably enhanced by the monumental prestige and the significant potential offered by the new museum location. The works, which included many of the most significant documents of regional art, from evocative medieval wooden icons and sculptures to masterpieces of the Renaissance period, such as the processional cross of the L’Aquila Cathedral by Nicola da Guardiagrele and the fully rounded sculpture of St. Sebastian by Silvestro dell’Aquila, were arranged in the series of large rooms on the first floor of the eastern building, corresponding to the facade. Later, a selected series of works from the 16th to the 18th century were exhibited on the second floor. In 1975, the museum received, as a conservation deposit, the substantial bequest of Marquis Francesco Cappelli, distinguished by a remarkable core of paintings by Mattia Preti. The archaeological section, obtained from the Civic Museum, was set up in the South-East bastion: the first core of the current collection is the result of the donation of the collection compiled, with passionate effort, by Prince Francesco Caracciolo, in his palace in Barisciano, around the mid-18th century. Other important finds come from 19th-century excavations conducted by Antonio De Nino and Nicolò Persichetti, especially in the area of ancient Amiternum. In 1926, artifacts from Alba Fucens and Guardia Vomano were deposited in the Fortress. Alongside the so-called Amiternum Calendar, of exceptional importance, there are pieces of notable interest: reliefs with a Funeral Ceremony and a Gladiatorial Game, a funerary stele in the shape of a serpent, and a varied collection of inscriptions of celebratory or funerary character. In the North-East bastion, the imposing fossil find discovered in 1954 near Scoppito has been reconstructed. In recent years, the Museum has been the subject of a general and substantial intervention aimed at the restoration of the museum heritage, the revision of the exhibitions, and the significant enhancement of museographic structures, thanks to the installation of new lighting and air conditioning systems and the provision of a valid set of educational aids and services.