POMPEII, Italy (AP) – Decades after bombings and earthquakes were damaged, the Pompeii Museum was reborn, displaying beautiful finds from excavations of the ancient Roman city.
Officials from the archaeological park of the city’s ruins destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD inaugurated the museum on Monday.
The museum is known as the Antiquarium and offers Pompeii a permanent exhibition space. Visitors can see passages with fresco walls from the city’s sprawling villas, examples of graffiti excavated by archaeologists, as well as household items ranging from silver spoons to a bronze food warmer, everyday life items blasted by the volcanic eruption. .
The Antiquarium, first opened in 1873, was damaged by bombings during World War II and again in 1980, when a deadly earthquake shook the Naples area. Since the earthquake, the museum has been closed, although it reopened in 2016 as a space for temporary exhibits.
The exhibits of the Antiquarium also document the history of Pompeii as a settlement several centuries before it became a thriving Roman city.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions in Italy, currently only visitors from the Campania region, which includes the Naples area and the Pompeii ruins, can see the museum.
Pompeii is one of Italy’s top tourist attractions, and when mass tourism finally begins again, admission tickets to the ruins will also include a visit to the Antiquarium.
The reopening of the museum after so many decades of strokes is a sign of great hope during a very difficult moment ‘, said Massimo Osanna, director of Pompeii. He referred to the hard blow that the travel restrictions of the pandemic inflicted on tourism, one of Italy’s largest sources of income.
In the last room of the museum, moving objects are displayed from the remains of some inhabitants of Pompeii, who tried to flee but were overcome by explosions of volcanic gases or by a rain of lava rocks thrown out by Vesuvius.
“I especially like the last room, the room dedicated to the eruption, and where the objects are distorted by the heat of the eruption, the throws of the victims, the throws of the animals,” Osanna said. “Actually, one touches by hand the incredible drama that was the eruption in 79 AD.”
Large parts of Pompeii have yet to be excavated. While tourism virtually came to a standstill during the pandemic, archaeologists continued to work.
Just a month ago, Osanna unveiled the discovery of an antique fast food eatery in Pompeii. The find has been completely excavated and helps to reveal dishes that were popular among the citizens of the ancient city, who apparently ate in part, including what was on the menu the day Pompeii was destroyed.
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D’Emilio reports from Rome.