Courtyard Inside the National Museum in Tarquinia, June 2012

The Museum is housed in the splendid Palazzo Vitelleschi, constructed between 1436 and 1439 at the behest of Cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi, under the pontificate of Eugenius IV. The building, one of the most important monuments of the early Renaissance in Lazio, was used as an accommodation for the clergy in their stops at Corneto. Passed subsequently to the family in 1900 the Soderini Palace was purchased by the municipality of Tarquinia in 1916, and given to the State to be the Archaeological Museum. Opened in 1924 with the merger of two historic19th-century collections, the Municipal Library and the private collection of counts Bruschi-Fadaee, the Museum has been gradually enriched with the placing of materials from excavations conducted in the area of the ancient Etruscan city and its vast necropolis. From the early 80s, many rooms of the Museum have been renovated and older installations reinstalled. Currently on the ground floor are funerary sculptures in stone, especially the magnificent sarcophagi from the noble tombs of the Hellenistic age. The first floor houses the furnishings from the rich city's necropolis, but also the famous clay relief with winged horses from the pediment of the great Temple of the Ara della Regina. On the second floor are some paintings from painted tombs, removed in the 50s for conservation purposes and refit on frames that allow the reconstruction of the burial chamber.

Text from: www.beniculturali.it/mibac/opencms/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Luogo...