A museum and three millennia of history
Located in a strategic position on the Via Latina (today's Via Casilina), Teanum Sidicinum was considered by the ancients as one of the major cities of internal Campania, second in importance only to Capua. Strenuous opponent of the Samnites first and later the Romans, the city was finally conquered by the latter, but nevertheless obtained the status of Municipium with its own coinage.
History
Inaugurated on 12 March 2001, the Archaeological Museum of Teanum Sidicinum is housed in the late Gothic monumental complex of the “Loggione e Cavallerizza”, built in the 14th century with political and civil functions and belonged to the Marzano family. In the eighteenth century, the building was used as a stable for the horses of the most important families of Teano, and was ceded in the nineteenth century to the Municipality, which converted the upper part to a school and the lower part to the seat of the Royal Giudicato.
In 1937, the rooms on the lower floor were transformed into a cinema-theatre, and remained so for roughly forty years, when, following important restoration work, the building became a museum. Since December 2014, the Ministry through the Campania museum complex, which later became the Regional Directorate of Museums in December 2019.
Heritage
Exhibited in the museum are the finds from excavations in the ancient centre of Teano and in the territory of Teanum Sidicinum, an ancient city founded around 343 BC, which became the capital of the Sidicini, an Oscan-speaking Italic population that occupied the area between southern Lazio and the lands of the Samnites.
The exhibition, organised through the findings contexts, develops the main dynamics of occupation of the territory on the two naves of the medieval building: the age of the villages (VIII-IV century BC), exhibited in rooms II-IV, and the age of the city (III century BC - VII century AD) exhibited in rooms V-VII.
The main nuclei are made up of the votive objects placed in the sanctuaries, in particular from the sacred area built in Loreto and the sanctuary of the village of Fondo Ruozzo which has returned statuettes, pottery, miniature ceramics, ex-voto.
The density and wealth of the Sidicini population is also testified by the funerary objects of the necropolis both in the villages and in the small cities (in the localities of Torricelle, Campofaio, Gradavola, Carrano, Orto Ceraso), with materials ranging from the end of the 6th century BC to the Roman imperial age.
The Museum also houses a section dedicated to urban excavations, including the recovery of the Roman theatre, located in a central area of the city. The theatre preserves almost entirely the cavea and the scenic building with its architectural and sculptural decoration, pertaining to an extension of the Severian period. Of particular interest is the mosaic with a representation of the Epiphany which is the oldest attestation of this theme in Italy on mosaics.
The Conference Room, which can hold a seated audience of up to 100 people, is also used for temporary exhibitions. It currently houses finds from the necropolis and sanctuaries of Presenzano (Rufrae), a Samnite centre inhabited from the 7th century BC.
