Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti Musicali

The National Museum of Musical Instruments preserves a collection of more than three thousand instruments, from ancient objects to modern examples. Much of its collection came from tenor and collector Gennaro Evangelista “Evan” Gorga, who ceded his holdings to the Italian state in 1950.

Why it matters

Opened in 1974, the museum traces the history of musical instruments across periods and cultures. Its holdings include European instruments of exceptional historical interest as well as objects from Africa, Oceania and the Americas, allowing visitors to consider music-making across different traditions.

What to notice

Among the collection's notable instruments are the seventeenth-century Barberini harp, an Italian vertical harpsichord and an original piano built by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1722. The holdings also include wind instruments, lutes and guitars, alongside instruments from outside Europe. Recent curatorial projects have brought historic instruments into conversation with modern works.

Context and history

Gorga (1865–1957) sang as a tenor before devoting much of his life to collecting instruments and material related to music. His 1950 donation to the state formed the nucleus of the national collection. The museum opened more than two decades later and has continued to grow through acquisitions and deposits. Its holdings span from antiquity to the twentieth-century avant-garde.