The Arsago Seprio Museum gathers in its three rooms the archaeological finds from the excavations carried out by the Archaeological Superintendency over the last thirty years. They make it possible to follow the settlement of Arsago and its territory from prehistory up to the Visconti.
Evidence of the ancient settlement of Arsago Seprio dates back to the Final Bronze Age; later, Celtic peoples of the Insubres settled here and, from the 2nd century BC, underwent a slow but steady process of assimilation with Rome which, in the Augustan age, led them to adopt Roman ways and customs.
The vicus remained prosperous until late antiquity; probably as early as the Early Christian period it became the seat of a baptismal parish church (pieve) dedicated to St Victor. In the 7th century AD a sizeable group of Lombards settled there, made up of warriors and horsemen with their families.
The presence of a high-ranking individual in this period is attested by the spur with silver inlay placed in one of the graves. Also worth remembering is the young Arnolfo, who died aged twenty-five in 893, whose lineage was illustrious “ab antiquis”, as stated in the inscription now on display in the Baptistery. The noble “de Arsago” family of capitanei produced the Archbishop of Milan Arnolfo II (998-1018). In the late Middle Ages Arsago became part of the Visconti lordship.
The Civic Archaeological Museum also houses the palaeontological collection assembled from 1973 to the present day by Dr G.C. Politi. Once the legal formalities have been completed, the collection will take the name “Divisione JULIA” and will be donated to Arsago and its people.
The collection comprises over 400 pieces, including a fascinating collection from the Jurassic of Solnhofen (Bavaria) and from the Eocene of Bolca.