The recently opened “Villa Garibaldi” Culture Museum is one of the most significant museums of the Aniene Valley, and thanks to the very meticulous scientific project that has guided its institution, it now represents an important research and documentation centre for the complex and very multi-faceted history of the area that ever since antiquity has witnessed trade and exchanges between many different cultures.

 

The Museum provides evidence of the presence and meetings between different cultural identities, in a country which, ever since ancient times, is a frontier zone and thanks to the via Valeria, the consular road, an important cross-roads for many different traffics. The museum displays archaeological, historical and demo-ethno-anthropological collections. The archaeological exhibits date from the archaic period through to the Aequi’s and then on to the Romans.

 

The later historical developments are even presented through remarkably accurate reconstructions and particular objects including a few memento’s from Garibaldi’s family, a branch of which was responsible for building the palace which now houses the museum. The exhibits related to local cultures consist of large collections of traditionally used objects along with visual and sound documentation concerning the immaterial aspects of the cultural heritage.

 

The hub of the teaching activities is the Museum’s documentation centre which, besides collecting films, sound tapes, photographs and archive material, can also boast a large body of research and processing of audiovisuals on the most salient aspects of life and the formation of the local identity.