The Archaeological Museum has been renovated and enlarged, with new exhibition spaces in the building on via Nirone, reached by a walkway that crosses the Roman walls from the museum’s inner cloister.
The archaeological museum is set in an extraordinary architectural context, the former convent of the Monastero Maggiore di San Maurizio, founded in the 8th century AD, where the history of ancient Milan still shows visible traces. The area was occupied by a residential building of the 1st century AD, by the walls and by the great Roman circus next to the imperial palace of the late 3rd century AD, of which substantial remains survive.
The collections are displayed in different rooms according to the culture they belong to. On the ground floor, past the first cloister (architectural decoration from Milan), is the section devoted to Ancient Milan.
The tour continues in the inner cloister (“Milanese society through its inscriptions”), where you can visit the polygonal tower (late 3rd century) with early medieval frescoes (13th century). The film Milano Capitale dell’Impero can be viewed by clicking on Useful Sites (top right).
In the basement you can visit the Caesarea Maritima and Gandhara sections.
From the museum’s inner cloister, the walkway crossing the Roman walls leads to the new building. Inside the polygonal tower of the walls there is a sculpture donated to the City of Milan by Mimmo Paladino.
On the ground floor, next to the lecture and education room, a display devoted to ancient music has been set up (Suoni Silenti. Immagini e strumenti musicali del Civico Museo Archeologico di Milano).
The first floor houses the early medieval section, the second the Etruscan section, while the third floor is devoted to the Greek section. From a small room at the end of the Etruscan section you can glimpse the two Roman towers of the Monastero Maggiore complex.
The Egyptian, Prehistory and Protohistory collections are displayed in the Sale Viscontee of the Castello Sforzesco.