Benaki Museum, Μουσείο Μπενάκη, Athens, Greece In a beautiful white neo-classical house near the Greek Parliament and government offices, there lies a vast collection of beautiful and fascinating objects which show off the glory of Greek life through the ages. This is not a state museum, underfunded and showing the need for investment, but a fine example of what all…
National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Cagliari, Cagliari, Sardinia When planning my trip to Cagliari, the first thing I knew I really needed to do was visit the Archaeology Museum. It would have been necessary anyway, but what made it sound particularly interesting was the fact that the museum had objects from an ancient native Sardinian culture. But…
Archaeological Area, Area archeologica, Cagliari, Sardinia The St Eulalia complex in the medieval district of Marina in Cagliari, is a curiosity. There is a church round the back and there is a treasury upstairs from the archaeology site. The whole complex is referred to as MUTSEU. The archaeological area of St Eulalia doesn’t just date from one period – it spans…
Augusta Raurica, Switzerland Perhaps I should start by saying that I spent about eight years of my life studying Roman history. This may give you a clue as to where I stand with Roman sites. The prospect of visiting Roman towns really makes me stupidly happy, and I have blissfully trawled through municipal museums looking at fragments of Roman life…
Chester, England Two significant Roman remains sit side by side just outside the city walls: the Roman Gardens and the amphitheatre. There isn’t a lot to see. There’s no sugar-coating it. But they are worth a potter. Roman Gardens Dating from the 1950s, the Roman Gardens were created to display the larger fragments from the legionary fortress at Deva. Between…
The Grosvenor Museum, Chester, England The Grosvenor Museum was opened in 1886 through the energy of the Chester Society for Natural Science, Literature and Art, which had been founded in 1871 by Charles Kingsley, the writer of The Water-Babies, who was a canon of Chester Cathedral at the time. Joining forces with the Chester Archaeological Society and the Schools of Science…
Archeaology Museum of Dubrovnik, Dubrovački muzeji; Dubrovnik, Croatia, April 2017 It is a testament to the builders of the Revelin Fortress that it survived the 1667 earthquake which damaged pretty much everything in Dubrovnik. Built in 1463, it was the strongest of the city fortresses, protecting it from the marauders from the east, and it now plays host to a museum…
Cantonal Museum of Archaeology and History, Musée cantonal d’archéologie et d’histoire (MCAH), Lausanne, Switzerland The centrally located Palais de Rumine, a great big building on the Place de la Riponne, is home to five local museums. On the first floor is the little Cantonal Archaeology & History Museum. It looks at the archaeology of the Lake Geneva region from 15,000 BC onwards,…