Museo Archeologico Nazionale Jatta

The Museo Archeologico Nazionale Jatta preserves a collection of more than two thousand antiquities assembled by the Jatta family in Ruvo di Puglia during the early nineteenth century. The collection remains displayed in Palazzo Jatta, with its historic cabinets and nineteenth-century arrangement.

Why it matters

Giovanni and Giulio Jatta formed the collection between about 1820 and 1840, when archaeological finds from Ruvo's tombs were often dispersed beyond the region. Their family kept the collection together. The museum offers a rare view not only of Apulian antiquities but also of the nineteenth-century history of collecting and display.

What to notice

The four-room sequence moves from plain pottery to figured ceramics. Original cabinets and furnishings remain part of the arrangement. The collection's best-known object is the fifth-century BC Attic red-figure crater showing the death of Talos, the bronze guardian of Crete. Other notable pieces include a fourth-century BC crater with masks and a phiale with a female figure accompanied by erotes. The Grottone, opened as an exhibition space in 2022, presents the “Collezionauta” display alongside objects associated with the Jatta family and a nineteenth-century painting reconstructing the Tomba delle Danzatrici.

Context and history

Giovanni Jatta, a jurist, and his brother Giulio, a retired Bourbon officer, began acquiring finds from the necropoleis around Ruvo. The collection passed to Giovanni junior, who established its presentation and compiled a multi-volume catalogue. The neoclassical palace was built in the mid-nineteenth century to house the collection. The museum is now managed by the state museum directorate for Puglia.