Museum's History
The National museum, integral part of the Egnatia's archaeological park, is located outside the IV sec. b.C. defensive boundary walls enclosing the old town area.
Created and built in the 70s to collect and show the copious documentation found in the excavations made in Egnatia from 1912 onwards, which revealed Messapian tombs, considerable Roman and late ancient town remains, with private and public buildings and, on the acropolis, a medieval fortress, the foundations of a III cent. b.C. temple and living structures belonging to Bronze age.
The museum, built with Cassa per il Mezzogiorno funds, rose on a vast area which had become a government property and it was planned as a modular structure, made up of 11 cubic pavilions with wide exhibition halls and ample glass windows at the mezzanine and service rooms to the museum (warehouses, labs, offices) at the basement. It proves well set inside the surrounding rural environment characterised by the presence of age-old olive trees.
The exhibition path, offering a chronological and territorial view, documents Egnatia's history and topography through time, its transformations and its relationships with other settlements present in the south-east of the region: from the first population forms of XVI cent. b.C. , continuing with aspects relevant to the site's urban reality and to its progressive monumentalization in Messapian, Roman and late ancient age, until the VIII century acropolis, with a fortified settlement still existing in XI – XII century.
Particular relevance is given, in each section , to the specific themes related to the most significant aspects of ancient population (territory organization, economy and production, urban space, religious ideology, funerary culture).
Since 2001, the Department of Antiquity Sciences of University of Bari has resumed the excavation activities, thus contributing to strengthen the relationship of this institution with its students and archaeologists elaborating graduation and doctorate thesis, participating to study days, conferences and seminars organized in the museum's conference hall.
Besides, the structure with its warehouses, labs and offices, can meet the restoration, cataloguing and documentation needs which complete the study of the archaeological finds and their exhibition.
The educational activities performed are constantly increasing. Besides the traditional guided tour, the museum offers school children in-depth elaboration on specific topics, seminars and workshops that, by simulations and games, both in the Park and in the museum, allow to experiences new ways of learning history. The museum also hosts stages connected to vocational training and post-university courses or to projects carried out by Senior High Schools with EC funding (I.e. valorisation of the archaeological heritage and new information technologies).
Reception and information are guaranteed by an additional services company in charge of the booking office and the shop in the museum's entrance hall, where you can find an area for press services, equipped for consultation.
Since 1978 it is the operational office of the Board for Archaeological Heritage of Apulia for protection activities in the province of Brindisi.
