Este Lapidary Museum, Modena

Located in the quadriportico on the ground floor of the eighteenth-century Albergo delle Arti, now Palazzo dei Musei, the Museo Lapidario Estense was established in 1828 by Francesco IV d’Austria-Este. In this location, testimonies of epigraphic and historical-artistic interest from the city and ducal territory were gathered to create the first city museum with educational and enhancement purposes. To this end, works from the Estense collections attracted other donations and acquisitions.
The most important core of the Lapidario Estense is represented by the imposing sarcophagi of the Roman imperial age transferred from the courtyard of the Cathedral Canonicals, where they had rested since the end of the 17th century, and which still constitute the most significant series of such artifacts in all of Emilia Romagna today. The important Roman section is seamlessly accompanied by monuments from the medieval and Renaissance sections that document the reuse of ancient sarcophagi and subsequent revivals and imitations. The latter section documents illustrious Modenese personalities also belonging to more recent history.