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Lipari

Luigi Bernabò Brea Archaeological Museum

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A FORTRESS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEA WITH SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS OF HISTORY BEHIND IT

Seven islands of volcanic origin (Lipari, Salina, Vulcano, Alicudi, Filicudi, Stromboli and Panarea) where the first human settlements date back to the fifth millennium BC. The objects and events of Aeolian civilisation from its origins to the Norman period in the extraordinary Luigi Bernabò Brea Museum on Lipari.

Estimated reading time2 min

Notices(2)

  • On sale from May to October

    Tickets can only be purchased on site. Online sale from May to October

  • Free entrance

    On the first Sunday of the month admission to sites in Eastern Sicily is free of charge and tickets will only be issued on site, at the ticket offices.

Services(4)

  • Educational Activities
  • Info Point
  • Official ticket office
  • Skip-the-line Entrance

Duration

2 hours

Description

Aeolian Islands: a journey to the roots of Mediterranean civilisation

The Regional Pole of the Aeolian Islands for cultural sites, with the Archaeological Park and the Luigi Bernabò Brea Museum, is based in the Fortress of Lipari (now Lipari Castle) - a natural fortress that has protected the inhabitants with its inaccessibility since prehistoric times. This geographic position has opened the way to continuous cultural succession: the Fortress has been inhabited since Neolithic times, becoming an Acropolis in the Greco-Roman period and a fortified citadel later.

The Luigi Bernabò Brea Archaeological Museum

It is precisely this temporal layering that is illustrated in the rooms of the Luigi Bernabò Brea Museum, named after the creator of the Regional Archaeological Museum.

The tour begins with the history of the museum and the digs carried out on the Aeolian Islands. Here the cultural evolution from the Neolithic Age to the Final Bronze Age is documented.

Prehistory

A subsequent pavilion presents finds from the prehistory of Lipari and the smaller islands. Thanks to the mining and processing of obsidian (black volcanic glass), the population was stable from the middle of the 6th millennium B.C. onwards, allowing the development of an advanced civilisation, which built stone villages and had regular contacts with Mycenae.

One section of the exhibits is dedicated to the founding of Greek Lipara in the 6th century B.C.: artefacts from the Acropolis of Lipari are collected here - in particular objects found in the votive well of Aeolus and in the settlement on the slopes of the Fortress.

The Greek-Roman Age

The section devoted to the Greco-Roman period displays the wealth of material (vases of various forms, personal objects, statuettes, masks, jewellery) from the burial objects found in the necropolis of contrada Diana on Lipari, where about three thousand tombs were discovered. The garden with adjoining epigraphic pavilion also preserves funerary stelae and headstones found in the necropolis, with inscriptions from the Greco-Roman period. One room of the museum is dedicated to underwater archaeology, displaying hundreds of artefacts (amphorae, anchors, vases, cannons) found in wrecks on the seabed of the Aeolian Islands.

Volcanoes as an economic resource

The Volcanology pavilion is introduced by a section that explores the relationship between humans and the land in antiquity, showing in particular the uses of volcanic products (obsidian, pumice, sulphur, alum, sulphurous water). Panels, models, maps and photographs illustrate the history of the volcanoes; samples of local rocks present the geomorphological features of the Aeolian Islands.

The Mare Motus contemporary art collection

In more recent times, the Castle of Lipari was a penal colony, and then a place for the confinement of dissident intellectuals, politicians and artists. The area of the former Castle Prisons now houses the core of the Mare Motus permanent collection of contemporary art, with many site-specific works inspired by the prison theme.

The space of the former St Catherine's church is used for temporary exhibitions.

Estimated reading time2 min

Map

Via Castello 2, 98050 - Lipari (ME)
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Forecast

  • Fri, 04 Jul
    26.8°/28.2°
  • Sat, 05 Jul
    26.6°/27.7°
  • Sun, 06 Jul
    26.1°/28°

Brochure(1)

  • Brochure: 240123-bernabo_brea-eng.pdf

    Luigi Bernabò Brea Archaeological Museum

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