General information
The National Museum of Reggio Calabria is one of the most prestigious archaeological museums in Italy in that it houses a large number of significant finds from the colonies of Magna Graecia which flowered in Calabria.
The commune of Reggio Calabria had organised a civic museum as far back as 1882, but it was the great archaeologist, P. Orsi, as superintendent, who promoted the institution of a state museum, with the intention of making available a suitable setting for the materials found during the course of the dig campaigns he had conducted all over Calabria.
The project for the building, one of the first in Italy to be conceived as a museum, was entrusted the most important architect of the time, Marcello Piacentini. Building began in 1932, but its inauguration took place only in 1959. Over the years, the museum has undergone notable transformations, such as the fitting out of the Section for underwater archaeology, destined to house the renowned Bronzes of Riace.
The exhibits in the museum begins on the ground floor with a Section dedicated to Prehistory and Protohistory and the rich Section dedicated to Locri Epizefiri on the floor below, with the underwater Section. On the first floor there is the Epigraphic and Numismatics Section and the sector relative to the principal Greek colonies (Reggio, Metauros, Medma and Hipponion, Kaulonia, Cirņ) and the other indigenous sites (Laos, Tortora and Temesa). At the moment, the collection which has so far been housed in thre Art gallery on the second floor and which was formerly in the Civic Museum, is being transferred to a new site belonging to the Commune of the city.
Address - Piazza De Nava 26, 89122 Reggio Calabria
Opening times - 9.00/19.30 every day, except Mondays. Closed 25 December and 1 January.
Telefono - +39 0965 812255/+39 0965 316238 (educational section)
Fax - +39 0965 25164
E-mail - archeorc@arti.beniculturali.it
Come raggiungerlo - Autostrada del Sole (Roma/Napoli/Salerno/Reggio Calabria), uscire allo svincolo REGGIO DI CALABRIA, continuare in CIRCONVALLAZIONE, girare a destra VIA CASERTA, continuare in VIA CARDINALE GENNARO PORTANOVA, girare a sinistra VIA DEMETRIO TRIPEPI PROLUNGAMENTO, girare a destra VIA DOMENICO ROMEO, gira a sinistra in PIAZZA GIUSEPPE DE NAVA