Museo d’Antichità J.J. Winckelmann

Created in the nineteenth century to accommodate the city's historical artefacts and later enriched by private donations, the Museum of History and Art now houses an important Egyptian collection, archaeological finds from the Roman period, rooms dedicated to local Prehistory and Protohistory, as well as Greek, Corinthian, Attic, Apulian and Etruscan vases, and cabinets displaying Ancient Inscriptions. It also offers a unique chance to browse through the Tarentina and Cypriot collections, which display thousands of artefacts currently held in storage while awaiting their own exhibition space. A further collection of Mayan ceramics from El Salvador provides an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the pre-Columbian civilisations of Central America. The Museum overlooks the Lapidary Garden, which contains Roman epigraphs, monuments and sculptures, and a small neoclassical temple dedicated to Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the father of modern archaeology, who was assassinated in Trieste on 8 June 1768.