Museo di Roma in Trastevere

The Museo di Roma in Trastevere occupies the former Carmelite convent of Sant'Egidio. Paintings, photographs and material connected with popular traditions explore Rome's everyday life and changing urban landscape.

Why it matters

The museum approaches the city through its inhabitants, streets and cultural memory. Ettore Roesler Franz's Roma sparita watercolours are particularly important records of places transformed during the development of modern Rome.

What to notice

The watercolours depict riverbanks, markets, courtyards and workshops. Painted city views and photographic archives add other ways of recording urban life. Material associated with the dialect poet Trilussa brings language and literature into the collection. The former convent's courtyard preserves an architectural setting distinct from the street scenes represented in the works.

Context and history

The convent developed in the seventeenth century, with work commissioned from Francesco De Sanctis in 1723. After expropriation, the buildings served several civic and medical purposes. Restoration preceded the museum's opening in 1976. It was subsequently known as the Museum of Folklore and Roman Dialect Poets before receiving its present name in 2000, linking its popular-culture collections with the wider Museo di Roma tradition.