Palazzo Vitelleschi, which today hosts the National Archeological Museum, was built between 1436 and 1439 on the orders of Cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi, Archbishop of Florence, who reached the peak of his power – followed by his demise – under Pope Eugene IV.
The building reuses medieval elements, and features Late Gothic and Renaissance elements of the Florentine school, clearly visible on the facade. The splendid inner courtyard opens out with two tall loggias embellished with marble and granite columns that support a third level, running along which is a loggia, repeated on the main facade.
On the top floor of the building, you can visit the chapel and the cardinal’s study, composed of two rooms. The chapel has a small apse framed with an elegant marble arch resting on columns, while the study is adorned with frescoes depicting Christ among the doctors and, on the long walls, allegories of the virtues alternating with Stories of Lucretia, by a painter known as Maestro di Corneto.
In the Museum, you can admire exhibits illustrating various eras of the local civilization, from the pre-Etruscan period to the Archaic and Hellenistic periods, thanks to an impressive amount of ceramic materials that include spectacular Corinthian and Attic ceramics featuring black and red figures and dating to the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.
The most valuable pieces on display are the two winged terracotta horses dating to the 4th-3rd century B.C. from the Temple of the Queen, on the hill of Tarquinia; the late-sixth century B.C. marble anchor of Sostratos from Gravisca, the ancient Greek-Etruscan port, with a Greek inscription dedicated to Apollo; the paintings removed from a number of tombs from the Monterozzi necropolis, and the painted Etruscan tomb “of the Magnate” from the end of the 4th century.
