National Archaeological Museum in Adria

The National Archaeological Museum of Adria was built in 1961 according to a project by the architect Benati and the engineer Scarpari to give a suitable setting to the several evidences which have been collected since 1780 by F.G. Bocchi.
All the excavation campaigns, from the one held in 1878/79 exactly in the area where the Museum is situated and led by F. Bocci until the most recent ones, have proved the great archaeological richness of the territory of Adria.
The Museum of Adria tells of events which have taken place since the 13th century BC, from the Bronze Age to the Roman period, and deals with Paleoveneti, Etruscans, and Greeks, Gauls and Romans. Inside, the arrangement of the finds shows the presence of several different cultures which had a great influence on the local population.

The visit to the Museum begins with the Attic earthenware with black-figure decoration on the red body, together with Corinthian earthenware and earthenware from Rhodes. Then, Etruscan finds like pottery, bucchero ware, tools, and small votive statues in bronze. Along the route we will find the local "imitations" among which, as a unique piece, a big vase recalling the Greek models for its figures and colors; moreover, the Greek-Etruscan burial objects, amber, gold, and glass jewels. The Roman period is documented by pottery, glass, tools and decorative objects; at the foot of the staircase leading to the ground floor there is the biga, found during the excavations of 1938: in front of the chariot two yoked horses, behind it the warrior's horse. In the inner courtyard there is the lapidary section: grave inscriptions, many of which on the characteristic stele of Adria; there is also a milestone of Via Popillia. Moreover, the Museum has been enriched with a section housing some of the most relevant discoveries made in the territory of Polesine: the prehistoric settlements of Canar in Castelnuovo Bariano, the Bronze Age pottery of Marola and Canova, the early Villanovan environment of Mariconda and Villamarzana, but above all of Frattesina and the Greek-Etruscan and Paleoveneto environment of San Basilio. The visit to the Museum of Adria ends with what has been found of the Imperial Age complex of Corte Cavanella di Loreo (Mansio Fossis in Tabula Peutingeriana), and the burial objects of the necropolis of Fondo Canotto, the goblets produced in Adria with terra sigillata signed by Lucius Sarius Surus.