Museo Archeologico Nazionale del Sannio Caudino

Inside the castle of Montesarchio, the National Archaeological Museum of the Sannio Caudino presents finds from three ancient centres of the valley: Caudium, Saticula and Telesia. Its best-known object is the red-figure krater signed by the Paestan painter Assteas, returned from the Getty Museum to Italy in 2007.

Why it matters

The museum brings together archaeological material from across the Valle Caudina. Its collections are organised around Caudium, the Samnite city on whose territory Montesarchio stands; Saticula, near Sant'Agata de' Goti; and Telesia, near San Salvatore Telesino. Finds from their necropoleis trace burial customs and craftsmanship from the mid-eighth century BC to the Roman conquest.

The Assteas krater is also part of a significant repatriation history. Sold on the international market in the 1970s, it was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1981 and returned to Italy in 2007, the year the castle museum opened.

What to notice

The fourth-century BC red-figure calyx krater was made in Paestum and signed by Assteas. One side depicts the Rape of Europa, with Zeus disguised as a white bull; the other shows a Dionysiac procession. The Ministry of Culture records that the vessel was found near Sant'Agata dei Goti in 1973 and later sold illegally before reaching the Getty.

Other collections include grave goods from Caudium's necropoleis, among them Attic and Italiote vases from fifth- and fourth-century BC tombs. In the former Bourbon prison cells, the permanent installation “Rosso Immaginario. Il Racconto dei vasi di Caudium” uses video projections to animate painted figures and recount their myths.

Context and history

The museum occupies the castle on Montesarchio hill. The building served as a fortress, later as a Bourbon prison, and was declared a national monument in 1949–50. After housing the Mater Orphanorum institute until about 1990, it passed to the archaeological authorities in 1994 and became the museum's home in 2007.

Montesarchio occupies the territory of ancient Caudium, a Samnite centre associated with the Roman defeat at the Caudine Forks. The museum's collections connect that history with archaeological finds from the wider valley.