Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Tarquinia

Tarquinia's National Archaeological Museum occupies Palazzo Vitelleschi, a fifteenth-century palace combining Gothic and Renaissance features. Its Etruscan collections bring sculpture, painted tomb decoration and imported Greek pottery into the historic centre.

Why it matters

The museum gives material form to the history of ancient Tarquinia and its cemeteries. Established in 1916 and inaugurated in 1924, it developed from the Municipal and Bruschi-Falgari collections, later enriched by archaeological discoveries.

What to notice

The terracotta Winged Horses came from the temple of Ara della Regina and preserve a striking element of Etruscan architectural decoration. The Sarcophagus of the Priest combines Greek marble craftsmanship with painting connected to its Etruscan use. A large kylix signed by the potter Euxitheos and painted by Oltos illustrates the prestige of Attic ceramics. Detached paintings from tombs including the Triclinium preserve scenes once embedded in the necropolis itself.

Context and history

Cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi's palace was built between 1436 and 1439. Its later transformation into a museum joined the town's medieval and Renaissance architecture to the archaeological heritage of the surrounding landscape. Objects from settlements and burials trace changes from the Iron Age into the Roman period, as well as the connections between Etruscan communities and the wider Mediterranean.