Museo Antiquarium

The “Filippo Buonopane” Antiquarium, a museum in Grottaminarda, is housed in the rooms of Castle D’Aquino.

The Museum’s exhibits include materials of different ages and origins, evidence of human life in this area since Neolithic times. The exhibits were collected after intensive research in the Ufita Valley.  
There are two rooms in the Antiquarium: an archaeological section and a room dedicated to contemporary history. 
 
The prehistoric and protohistoric age is evidenced by the fragments of flint, chiselled obsidian arrowheads, ceramics, etc. Other artefacts include ceramic vases, fragments of two hatchets from the Copper Age, items from the Bronze and Iron Ages, loom weights and an unguentary vase from the Samnite period.

The Antiquarium’s collection of exhibits from the Roman age is due to its proximity to the ancient Roman settlement of Aeclanum. The fragments of ceramic and marble include a portrait of a man, probably the emperor Augustus. Its style dates back to the imperial period with the rounded face, large eyes, closed mouth and locks of hair on the forehead. It was found in the gardens of Castle D’Aquino. In 1974 another discovery was made in the same garden: a portrait of the son of Tiberius Claudius Nero. It is now kept in the Irpinian Museum of Avellino.

The exhibition space devoted to contemporary history contains photographs, documents and postcards dating from 1900 to 1925, along with posters and many other items showing what life was like for the local community in more recent times.

Also known as the Municipal Antiquarium Museum of Grottaminarda, this exhibition space tells the lives of the people who lived in this area. The itinerary leads from the distant past through to more recent times, and includes permanent exhibitions that bring this historic legacy to life.