the Ancient Delta Museum of Comacchio is an archaeological museum hosted within the Ospedale degli Infermi, imposing neoclassical architecture of the eighteenth century, situated in the center of the city. The Museum Delta Antico preserves a collection of about 2000 finds both of prehistoric epoch, that epoch spinetica – The village of Spina a few kilometers far from Comacchio was an etruscan port that commerciava with Greece – that of the roman and medieval periods. There is also exposed the load of Luck Maris, a commercial vessel of the imperial era riemersa in 1981, whose load was visible in the Museum of the Roman ship at Bellini Palace.
The Ospedale degli Infermi (1778-1784) is the work of the architect from Ferrara Antonio Foschini and has a neoclassical facade with a tympanum supported by 4 large columns and two lateral campaniletti. The rear facade is of Gaetano Genta. The building was used as a hospital until the middle of the Seventies of the twentieth century and represents one of the buildings the most monumental of the historic center of Comacchio. On the left you will find the church of San Pietro, or hospital.
The museum presents different sections devoted to the finds of the cultures that lived in the area of the Po Delta in addition to a section of geological theme-environment that illustrates the changes of the territory in the course of the millenniums, from the formation of the pianura padana to our days.
The section of the Final Bronze Age and Iron first shows the most ancient archaeological finds of the area which show human settlements and finds similar to those of Frattesina a few kilometers to the north, a proto-historic village of considerable size (over 20 hectares) that stretched along the right bank of the greater the Padana branch of the Bronze Age: the Adria Po River.
The section on the archaic and classical shows the finds of the archaeological excavations of the Etruscan town of Spina; in its necropolis have been found more than 4000 tombs, to which must be added the excavations of a part of the village. The city had a port that connected the territory of Etruscan influence and also the central Europe with the Greek world.
The section of the roman age presents among others the load of a Roman ship, the Stella Maris, riemersa in 1981 during the drainage of a channel. The ship, in exceptional state of preservation, still contained all the load (amphorae with foodstuffs, ingots of lead, some votive temples in lead). The entire load as well as equipment and clothing of the crew are exposed in the museum; the hull of the ship to 2017 is still undergoing restoration.
Finally are findings of late medieval age with objects related to the sale of the salt and the manufacture of objects in glass and metal.
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