Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze

The National Archaeological Museum of Florence, part of the Polo Museale della Toscana (i.e Museums Complex/Network of Tuscany) and therefore part of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage (Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali e per il Turismo), was founded as early as 1855 by the Lorraine dynasty, with the Egyptian antiquities collected by their predecessors in ruling Tuscany, the Medici dynasty. In 1870 the Etruscan and the Graeco-Roman sections were added. In 1880 the Royal Archaeological Museum of Florence was instituted. With its 10,000 sqaure meters, the Museum is today the third largest Museum of Florence (out of the 96 existing in the city), after the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti. A major block, long about 250 meters, on three levels, displayes important works of art from the 4th millennium B.C to the early Middle Ages 7th cent. A.D.). The mission of the National Archaeological Museum of Florence is spreading through its very reach collections the knowledge on Etruscan, Aegyptian, Greek and Roman art and life. At the same time, the Museum has a yearly intense program of educational activities, devoted to several hundreds of classes from schools of every order and cathegories, in Tuscany and abroad. The most important programms of the Museum are exhibitions on various aspects of the ancient world, from daily life to art and culture, from the social costumes to the material evidence. The most important project at the moment is the complete reinstallation of the large and consistent Etruscan section, divided by topografical order and chronological development. This section, for which the Museum was famous because it has the most important material evidence of the Etruscan culture, art, and history, was severely damaged by the big flood of the Arno river, on November 4th, 1966. It took the Museum 50 years to restore all the works of art damaged by the oily and violent waves of mud and water. Now the Museum is - eventually! - ready to put its treasures on display and to give visitors a glimpse of the rich and refined life of the ancient Etruscans, with their gold jewelry, their silver and bronze vases, their amber and ivoy personal ornaments and pins, and so on. The National Archaeological Museum of Florence, infact, is the most important museum of the world for the Etruscan culture.