Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Parma

Parma's National Archaeological Museum preserves the finds from Roman Veleia and collections tracing prehistoric, pre-Roman and Roman Italy alongside ancient Egypt.

Why it matters

The museum grew from excavations at Veleia, where a large bronze inscription was discovered in 1747. Duke Filippo di Borbone established the Ducale Museo d'Antichità in 1760 to house finds from the site. It became one of northern Italy's earliest museums founded directly from an archaeological enterprise and later contributed to the development of prehistoric research through its terramare collections.

What to notice

The Roman collection includes the Tabula Alimentaria from Veleia, a record of Trajan's support for children, part of a Lex de Gallia Cisalpina inscription, bronzes and coins. Twelve marble statues from Veleia depict members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Other holdings include Bronze Age terramare material, Egyptian antiquities, Greek and Italiote vases, coins and sculpture from the Farnese and Gonzaga collections.

Context and history

A ducal decree of 1817 required antiquities discovered in the duchy's territories to be delivered to the museum. Under director Giovanni Mariotti, the collections expanded during the late nineteenth century. The museum underwent a renovation in 1964–1965, updated its prehistoric section in 2010 and reopened in 2023 with a chronological presentation from the Paleolithic to the Early Middle Ages.