The Stabia Archaeological Museum reopens expanded and with a new layout. Depots can also be visited

The Archaeological Museum of Stabia “Libero D’Orsi” reopens to the public today with a new layout, enriched by a wider path and a school of education and digitization, and with the possibility of visiting the deposits. The museum’s halls have been duplicated, and the collection has been enriched with works from villas in the Stabia area. Now 507 artifacts are on display, including wall paintings, marble furniture, ceramic and bronze furnishings. Also housed here to be protected and enhanced are about 125 archaeological finds of Campania production recovered thanks to a complex inspection activity conducted by the Naples Nucleo TPC, with the collaboration of the Torre Annunziata Territorial Armament and in synergy with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii - Area Tutela. The exhibition route is also integrated with educational multimedia technologies and apparatus, which aim to improve the physical and cultural accessibility of the works and contents. In addition, the complex’s storerooms have been enhanced according to a new concept, which aims to transform them from places of conservation to spaces open to the public for use and research.

Since 2020, the museum has been housed in the spaces of the Reggia di Quisisana, a building with a history of more than seven centuries that was enhanced during the Bourbon era. Since its establishment, the museum has been designed to house a vast collection of artifacts from the Stabia area, along with valuable evidence of daily life, particularly in the luxurious Roman villas d’otium and rustic villas. These dwellings, located in panoramic positions overlooking the Gulf of Naples, were intended for the repose of body and spirit, away from activities and business.

The operation to enhance the Reggia di Quisisana, under a concession for use by the Municipality of Castellammare, was overseen and promoted by thePompeii Archaeological Park directed at the time by the current Director General of Museums, Massimo Osanna, thus allowing the oldest Bourbon royal site to be returned to the Italian heritage, now the site of a prestigious museum and cultural center. “Today we reap the fruits of an ambitious project in which I have always believed, committing myself at the forefront for the enhancement of the Reggia di Quisisana, which has become, since 2020, the natural and prestigious exhibition space for the archaeological heritage of ancient Stabiae,” said Massimo Osanna. “Visiting the Archaeological Museum of Stabia means not only understanding the life and culture of the past, but also projecting into the future: here, in fact, we intend to build a virtuous model of dialogue with the territory, a good practice based on interinstitutional synergy and experimental scientific research. The institute, which reopens to the public with a new layout enriched in the composition of exhibits and in the didactic communication methodology, is an invitation to the discovery of our history: the enhancement agreement with the National Archaeological Museum of Naples has also made it possible to offer visitors an extraordinary journey among artifacts that have just undergone a careful restoration campaign.”

Now the museum’s tour route has been expanded with the introduction of new restored artifacts, while the existing one has been revisited with the adoption of new technologies and the integration of multimedia and educational apparatus. For the first time, the displays unite the decorative apparatuses of the maritime villas discovered on Varano Hill during excavations in the Bourbon era and those unearthed by Libero D’Orsi since 1950.

The display that brings together, after more than 250 years, the Stabiese finds preserved at the MANN in Naples and those discovered by the dean, now housed at the Quisisana, was made possible thanks to the Agreement signed with the MANN for the enhancement of the Stabian heritage. This agreement allows the museum to have on loan for three years many of the artifacts found in Stabia, according to rotation cycles. Therefore, for the first time it will be possible to enjoy the decorative apparatus organized by contexts of provenance.

“The reopening to the public of the Archaeological Museum of Stabia, with its new layout, its collections enriched by the finds from the Stabia villas and the temporary reunion with those preserved at the MANN, its renovated halls, and the advanced training center, is wonderful news for culture. This is a unique site that, thanks to everyone’s work, is once again shining and offering citizens and enthusiasts an incredible range of historical evidence of the greatest importance. This is a fundamental piece of the strategic operation to enhance the value of this area, within the Greater Pompeii project, that is, that immense park of widespread history, within which the archaeological areas of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabia, Oplontis, Boscoreale and all the surrounding territory insist. The new Museum of Stabia will be one of the pearls of this project that testifies, once again, to the centrality that Campania has for world archaeology and our choice to continue investing in these wonderful riches of the nation’s cultural heritage,” said Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano. “On Castellammare there is also a Ministry funding of 4 million euros for the restoration and re-functionalization of the Convent of St. Francis, behind the Diocesan Museum. The executive project is being delivered. By the summer we will start the work.”

“The Archaeological Museum of Stabia is much more than a museum of valuable archaeological works, in terms of quantity and quality that highlight the historical and cultural value of the Stabian territory,” stressed director Gabriel Zuchtriegel, “but a true cultural hub and research center of international appeal, as it is home to a training school for the enhancement of cultural heritage equipped with digitization equipment and accessible repositories for research and study.”

The Stabia Archaeological Museum reopens expanded and with a new layout. Depots can also be visited

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