The Regional Archaeological Museum of Gela houses, according to the sources, more than five thousand finds on the life of the ancient Greek colony of Gela and of the centres of the Nisseno under its control. Opened in the 1950s, it is regarded as the third largest archaeological museum in Sicily.
What to see
The territory of Gela proved very rich in discoveries from the late eighteenth century, often through illicit digs. After a survey by the archaeologist Paolo Orsi, in 1897 the Province of Caltanissetta came under the Museum of Syracuse and the first official excavations began; but the lack of a local museum meant that most of the finds left the city. The new museum was built with funds from the Cassa del Mezzogiorno, to a design by the architect Luigi Pasquarelli, after authorisation by the archaeologist Pietro Griffo, and was inaugurated on 21 September 1958; thanks to the display arranged by Griffo himself it was described as the most modern archaeological museum in Italy.
The collections trace the history of Gela and its territory from prehistory to the Middle Ages, with finds also from other sites of the Nisseno such as Dessueri, Monte Bubbonia and Sofiana. The two oldest collections are those of the Barons Navarra and Nocera, with many black- and red-figure vases. Among the most important pieces are an intact Chalcidian helmet, a rare Laconian krater of the seventh century BC attributed to the Hunt Painter and recovered by the carabinieri, the three votive arulae (small altars) from the emporium of Bosco Littorio, architectural details from the city's temples and a large coin collection. On the night of 17 January 1973 four armed, masked men took from the coin cabinet about six hundred gold and silver Greek and Roman coins: about a hundred and fifty were later recovered in Lugano and about twenty in Florence, and the original collection was never fully reassembled.
Visiting
Note: according to the sources consulted the museum has been temporarily closed since 12 May 2021 for demolition, enlargement and moving of the finds, as part of the largest restructuring in its history. The sources do not say whether or when it has reopened: before going, check with the Parco archeologico or the Soprintendenza.
Our editors' tip
The architect Franco Minissi, who enlarged the museum in 1984, is the same who in the 1960s devised the crystal-slab covering of the Timoleontic walls at Capo Soprano: anyone who visits both places can compare the two interventions.
