Museo Archeologico del Finale

Inside the Santa Caterina complex of Finalborgo, wrapped around two fifteenth-century cloisters, the Finale Archaeological Museum presents more than a century of archaeological research in the Finalese in chronological sequence — from Lower Paleolithic finds through Neanderthals, the painted caves of the Upper Paleolithic, Roman necropolis and bridges, to the medieval borgo itself.

Why it matters

The Ministry of Culture describes the museum as the archaeological face of the Finale area. It is a reference institution for a territory with important prehistoric cave sites. Owned by the municipality of Finale Ligure and run by the Finale section of the Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri, it presents the results of over a hundred years of research in the caves, necropolis and road corridors around the town. The museum also coordinates guided visits to monuments including Castel Gavone and is part of the "Archeotrekking Finale" programme.

What to notice

The collection follows a chronological sequence. The Lower Paleolithic section presents material dated between 350,000 and 120,000 years ago, followed by Neanderthal finds dated between 120,000 and 38,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic section presents art and funerary remains of modern humans, and the Neolithic rooms draw heavily on the important Caverna delle Arene Candide on Capo Noli. A section on metallurgy covers the long arc from about 3600 to 300 BC. The Roman rooms hold grave goods from the necropoleis of Isasco and Perti and material from the bridges of the via Iulia Augusta in the Val Ponci, the Roman road that climbed the hills behind Finalborgo. The sequence closes with Byzantine, medieval and modern finds from recent excavations at Sant'Antonino and in Finalborgo — the surrounding borgo extending the story beyond the museum. The museum's website highlights thirteen symbolic objects, and its audioguide includes a dedicated accessible route among its five itineraries.

Context and history

The Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri's Finale section has curated the collections since the museum's early decades; the current installation inside the monumental complex of Santa Caterina placed the galleries around the two Renaissance cloisters raised at the end of the fifteenth century under Cardinal Carlo Domenico Del Carretto. The museum is part of the Dominican complex, formerly the Del Carretto burial church and later a prison. The complex now also houses the borgo's auditorium and civic library. The museum also operates archaeology, archaeobotany and restoration laboratories, and offers workshops, lectures, a library and an image archive.