Il MUV – Museum and Documentation Center of the Villanovan Civilization, housed in the former barn of the rural complex of Casa Sant’Anna in Villanova di Castenaso, stands right in the place where, between 1853 and 1856, the Bolognese archaeologist Count Giovanni Gozzadini discovered and identified traces of the oldest phase of the Etruscan civilization, developed between the early 1st millennium BC (Iron Age) and the last decades of the 8th century BC, until then unknown in Italy, to which Gozzadini himself decided to give the name “Villanovian”.
The MUV exhibits important finds from excavations found in Marano di Castenaso: among these, the funerary equipment of numerous tombs, certainly aristocratic, given the particular richness of the artifacts and the presence of many warriors.
The museum has a museum route dedicated to the steles that formed the monumental equipment of the Marano cemetery. These are 8 funerary markers in sandstone and limestone, some of which, attributable to the class of “Proto-Felsinean Steles”, have a rectangular shape with an overlying disc and feature a complex figurative low-relief decoration.
Of enormous value is the “Stele of the Swords” which has no comparison with the other Villanovan steles found: it depicts a duel between two warriors and is surmounted by a lion and other geometric figures.
Inside the exhibition, sounds, video installations, and interactive stations accompany the public into the life and rituals of the Villanovan civilization.
Since May 2013, the MUV has been enriched with the materials of the funerary equipment belonging to tombs 1,7,8, and 9 of the Orientalizing necropolis of Marano.
Information about Muv – Museum of the Villanovan Civilization
Via Tosarelli , 191
Castenaso (Bologna)
051 780021
muv@comune.castenaso.bo.it
Tuesday 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM Wednesday and Thursday 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM Friday 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM Saturday 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM opening on request Tuesday 8:30 AM – 1:30 PM
Free admission Guided tour for a fee
Source: MIBACT
