Museo delle genti d'Abruzzo

History

The museum is housed in the remaining sections of the fortress of Pescara, constructed starting in the 16th century. The visible part of this section is the Bourbon penal bath on Via delle Caserme. The museum officially opened in 1973 with exhibitions on the lower floor of the Birthplace of Gabriele D'Annunzio Museum. In 1982, most of the collection was donated to the municipality of Pescara, which inaugurated the museum at its current location on March 13, 1998.

In the early 2000s, the monumental arch on Via delle Caserme was reconstructed in a modern style, including the Literary Café. Before the 1943 bombing, a large access arch from the river, the only remaining element of the ancient entrance gates to Pescara from the fortress, stood near the barracks.

Collection

Inside, the museum contains artifacts and testimonies of life in Abruzzo, from Prehistory to the Industrial Revolution.

Of interest, located next to the atrium with the ticket office, is a small museum of the ancient Spanish fortress or "Real Piazza di Pescara", which later (the Via delle Caserme section) became a penal bath during the Bourbon era. The visible rooms show ancient prisons used for political prisoners opposing the Bourbons, including Clemente de Caesaris, a liberal and patriot from Abruzzo. The rooms are very simple, with barrel vaults, some preserved period cannons, and reproductions of the plans of the ancient fortress of Pescara, whose bastions were demolished or buried to allow the city to develop.

Part of the floor has been excavated to show how the ancient settlements of Aterno or Portanuova were constantly refortified over the centuries, from the Byzantines to the Normans to the Caldora family, leaving traces of the ancient Roman settlement, with remnants of underground mosaics.

Contains traces of prehistoric humans in Abruzzo (tools, pottery, tombs,...) and from ancient times (armor, weapons, iron,...).

The oldest artifacts date back 100,000 years, found in various archaeological areas of Abruzzo, mainly in caves at the foot of the Maiella and Gran Sasso, such as the Piccioni cave in Bolognano, the cave of Montebello di Bertona, or the archaeological area of Contrada Svolte di Popoli. The room reconstructs the Neolithic period in Abruzzo, when humans began to stop living in caves, which were instead used as crypts and tombs, and started practicing agriculture and animal husbandry; many tools for work in the countryside from this period are preserved. Moving to the Metal Age and then to the Italic peoples, funerary items, tombs, and skeletons found around Penne (PE) are preserved, including domestic objects, weapons, and armor for men, showing the evolution of this art, influenced by the Romans and Greeks.

Contains the reproduction of a cave, with artifacts from prehistoric, barbaric, and Christian beliefs. …