Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Capri

The National Archaeological Museum of Capri opened in 2024 inside the fourteenth-century Certosa di San Giacomo. Its collection brings Roman sculptures, frescoes, ceramics and silver tableware from the age of Augustus and Tiberius back to the island's historical landscape.

Why it matters

For centuries, many objects from Capri's Roman villas entered collections elsewhere. The museum presents about 120 artefacts connected with the island's imperial period, including material associated with Augustus and Tiberius. It was curated by Massimo Osanna and Carmela Capaldi and occupies historic rooms within the Certosa.

What to notice

The collection includes marble sculptures, frescoes, ceramics and silver tableware. Sculptures recovered from the Grotta Azzurra formed the focus of the original exhibition, whose lighting and sound design evokes the cave's Roman nymphaeum.

In May 2026 the museum expanded into two rooms in the Quarto del Priore. The new display includes the restored second-century sarcophagus of Crispina, sections on Augustan and Tiberian Capri, an immersive reconstruction of the Roman island and a digital archaeological map. Educational activities and multilingual materials are part of the exhibition design.

Context and history

The museum's 2024 opening brought archaeological material from Capri's Roman period into the Certosa, a charterhouse founded in the fourteenth century. Its 2026 expansion added further objects and interpretation to the exhibition, including the returned sarcophagus of Crispina.