Muzeu Pithecusae Museum

Welcome to the Archaeological Museum of Pithecusae, we are students from the class IV A of Ischia Scientific High School and we will guide you all around the building and the remains of the museum both in Italian and English. This special guide has been accomplished for UNESCO PROJECT as a work for the AS/L activity of our school.
In 1999 the Mayor of Lacco Ameno, Vincenzo Mennella, bought the villa when it was auctioned by the heirs of the owner Angelo Rizzoli. He bought it in order to exhibit all the finds uncovered in the most ancient Greek western colony; he would have liked to do it even before , in 1993, but because of a lack of funds he could not buy the building at that time.
The building, which dates back to 1700 and belonged to the Duke of Atri, is made up of the house hosting the museum, along with the gardens and a small area addressed to the Study Centre.
The villa has got two entrances, one on Angelo Rizzoli main street and the other one on Circumvallazione street ,very close to Mazzola excavation area.
Just in front of the villa you can see the Mount Vico promontory on which the temple was erected while, on the left , you can see Saint Montano Bay, the site of the ancient necropolis where the dead could look at sunset. Actually,  according to the old tradition,the necropolis had to be  turned to the west because death stood for the twilight of life.