Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Sperlonga

The National Archaeological Museum of Sperlonga displays the marble groups from the sea grotto of Tiberius's villa. Reassembled from thousands of fragments, the sculptures depict episodes from the stories of Odysseus and the Trojan War.

Why it matters

The villa and grotto were discovered in 1957 during works for the coastal road. Excavation recovered more than 15,000 marble fragments, which were reassembled into monumental sculptural groups in a Hellenistic sculptural tradition. An inscription on the ship in the Scylla group names three Rhodian sculptors, also associated with the Laocoön in the Vatican.

What to notice

The main groups include the blinding of Polyphemus, the attack of Scylla, the Rape of the Palladium and a Pasquino-type group. The latter's figures have been identified in different ways, including as Menelaus and Patroclus and as Ulysses and Achilles. The museum also displays sculpture and other finds from the villa, among them a second-century AD Ganymede.

Context and history

The grotto formed part of the imperial villa's architectural setting, combining dining space with mythological sculpture. After the 1957 discovery, the museum opened in 1963 to display the reassembled groups near the archaeological site. A local campaign helped keep the finds in Sperlonga rather than sending them to Rome. The museum and villa are managed together by the Ministry of Culture's Lazio museums directorate.