Museo Pio Capponi

Instituted in 1894 by local scholar Pio Capponi, the collection grew rapidly especially through donations, but it suffered heavy losses during the Second World War. Since 1959, the Museum, which has recently been enlarged and modernised, had been housed in two rooms belonging to two adjacent building of different periods; the first is located in the so-called Torre Fromentaria, dating back to the 13th century; the second is part of a building of 1956, current seat of the Town Council. The exhibition area is closely linked to the extraordinary Foro Emiliano complex, with the original paving of the 1st century A.D., which still has the role of political-administrative and religious centre of the town. The archaeological material includes finds dating from the Palaeolithic era to the Roman era and is mainly composed of statues, architectural fragments, burial epigraphs and sarcophagi. Worthy of note: the lithic and faunistic finds from Riparo Salvini, an important coastal environmental deposit of the early Palaeolithic period; a series of Roman portraits (2nd century B.C.-2nd century A.D.); an altar dedicated to the Providentia of Traianus with scenes of imperial largesse; an emperor’s statue with armour decorated with scenes of naval victories and maritime trades.