Museums and archaeological sites
Caserta and its province boast numerous museum structures and archaeological sites, sometimes unknown.
The city of Caserta does not have an archaeological museum to date, but in the first underground level of the Royal Palace of Caserta are exhibited on site seven tombs of the Samnite age and the finds found. The exhibition was inaugurated in 1993 but is currently closed to the public. The nearby Santa Maria C.V. instead boasts the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Capua, housed in a historic building of the mid-800, originally home to a Cavalry Barracks. The finds range from the Bronze Age (XVII-XVI century BC) to the full Roman age, when Capua became the Altera Roma.
Capua, not far from S. Maria Capua Vetere, houses the Museo Provinciale Campano, the “most significant of the Italic civilization of Campania” as defined by the archaeologist of the early twentieth century Amedeo Maiuri. Ancient Capua and its surroundings have numerous archaeological sites not open to the public and that are rarely visited by enthusiasts and citizens during the events. Domus, monumental tombs, dyer’s workshop, ancient furnaces and bronze foundries. A real underground city under today’s Santa Maria.
No less important are the art museums, such as that of the Royal Apartments of the Royal Palace of Caserta, furnished in detail and with huge paintings that often cover entire walls. Remarkable is the Throne Room and the king’s apartment that houses the Royal Nativity of the eighteenth century.
The Diocesan Museum of Caserta was established in 1996 and documents the artistic and religious tradition of Caserta. The Museum of the Real Belvedere of San Leucio is located in the Belvedere of San Leucio and houses three sections. Among the scientific museums we have the “Michelangelo” Museum and the Planetario of Caserta which is a museum structure owned by the Municipality of Caserta, for the dissemination of astronomy and the history of science. The projection dome is managed completely digitally. It also offers a small museum itinerary (original and copy instruments, books from the 1800s, interactive stations, rocks and minerals, models).
Finally, the Museum of Peasant Civilization in San Nicola La Strada has objects that speak of fatigue and humanity, of hard but genuine life.