The little-known museums in Rome you absolutely must visit

Small caskets full of beauty and history

Although unknown to most people, they are the essential pieces that complete the complex and often conflicting world which makes Rome so unique. Describing them as small museums may sound belittling, so we would rather call them ‘ museums with a soul’. As a matter of fact, they often speak of struggles and dreams of passionate art collectors or illustrate key moments in the history of Rome. Here are a few of them among the over 170  “small” museums of Rome.

Museo Napoleonico

NAPOLEONIC MUSEUM (Piazza Umberto I)

The building, nearly overlooking the Tiber river, was donated to the city of Rome by Count Giuseppe Primoli, the son of Carlotta Bonaparte. It houses memorabilia and works of art, but the lovely blue-painted rooms do not merely evoke the imperial splendor of the Napoleonic era, they rather testify to the intense relations between the Bonapartes and Rome. The private moments of a dynasty.

MUSEO DELLA REPUBBLICA ROMANA E MEMORIA GARIBALDINA

MUSEUM OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

AND  GARIBALDI MEMORIAL (Porta S. Pancrazio)

Established on the occasion of the 150th  anniversary of the Unification of Italy, the museum illustrates the short and intense summer of the Republic in 1849 and is located at Porta San Pancrazio, the symbol of the sacrifice made by  libertarians such as  Luciano Manara, Goffredo Macelli and Emilio Dandolo. The museum houses Garibaldian memorabilia,busts and, through multimedia displays, one can follow the evolution of the events, from the 1848 European revolutions to the liberal phase of Pope Pius IX against the Austrians, his escape to Gaeta and the Republic’s tragic ending.

GIOVANNI BARRACCO MUSEUM

GIOVANNI BARRACCO MUSEUM

(Corso Vittorio Emanuele 166)

The museum not only houses a rich collection of ancient art, but illustrates the story of Giovanni Barracco, the member of a wealthy Sicilian family of libertarian ideas and so opposing the House of Boubon that they financed Garibaldi’s enterprise. A member of the Parliament of unified Italy, he was also a passionate archeologist who collected an endless number of artefacts which led to the creation of the first museum of comparative ancient art which compares Egyptian, Greek, Assyrian, Phoenician, Cypriot, Roman, Etruscan and even Medieval artwork.

Museo delle Mura

MUSEUM OF THE WALLS

(Via Porta San Sebastiano 18)

Although the location has undergone several changes, it is still one of the best-preserved gates of the Aurelian walls and one of the largest with its two semicircular towers and travertine façade. Converted into a museum in 1990, it features original walkways and miniature plastic models and gives an idea of the sophisticated defensive system in the late Roman imperial period. Do not miss a walk along the walls.

museo biliotti

BILIOTTI MUSEUM IN VILLA BORGHESE’S ORANGERY (Viale dell’Aranciera)

Reopened to the public in 2006 after years of neglect, the Orangery houses a significant selection of contemporary works of art donated to the city of Rome by collector Carlo Biliotti (1934-2006). This lawyer and cosmetics industrial tycoon (La Praire) chose the building to showcase his rich art collection, including works by De Chirico, Severini, Warhol, Rivers, Manzù, Dalì, Saint-Phalle, Rotella.

MUSEO DELL’ALTO MEDIOEVO (ph. Massimo Gaudio)

EARLY MIDDLE AGES MUSEUM

(Museo delle Civiltà, EUR, Viale Lincoln)

Housed within the complex Museum of Civilizations, currently under renovation, the Early Middle Ages Museum gathers precious post-Imperial, Lombard and Carolingian artefacts from Central Italy. Eight rooms filled with extraordinary works, including the marble inlaid decorations from a monumental villa of Ostia Antica, marble reliefs of the Carolingian period and Coptic fabrics.

Galleria Doria Pamphilj

DORIA PAMPHILJ MUSEUM (via del Corso 305)

This imposing building, once owned by the della Rovere family, has been housing a very rich art collection since 1651.  It belonged to Camillo Pamphilj, the nephew of Giovan Battista, who became Pope Innocent X and entrusted him with most of the family’s precious possessions. The collection, which already included the Pope’s portrait by Velasquez and several works by Caravaggio, was transferred from Piazza Navona to Via del Corso and later enriched by works by Tiziano, Raphael, Parmigianino, Beccafumi and also Bronzino and Sebastiano del Piombo.

Montemartini Power Plant (ph. Mimmo Frassineti)

MONTEMARTINI POWER PLANT

(Via Ostiense 106)

Industrial archaeology at the service of classical archaeology. A unique museum which, in its beautifully-preserved spaces of one of the city’s first thermal power stations, houses sculptures, mosaics and finds belonging to the Capitoline Museums. The imposing 1912 structure, through its machinery, offers visitors a journey back to Republican Rome and has been recently enriched by three carriages of Pius IX’s train dating back to 1858.

Palazzo Altemps Museum

PALAZZO ALTEMPS MUSEUM

(Via Sant’Apollinare 46-Navona)

Established in 1889 to house  Rome’s antiquities, the museum currently gathers classical art collections showcased in the many rooms of the palazzo built by Girolamo Riario and taken over by the Altemps family in the 1500s. The museum, in fact, well describes the taste of art collectors from the 1500s on, such as the Boncompagni-Ludovisi collection with its 104 sculptures, including the touching Ludovisi Gaul, in addition to the Altemps, Drago and Mattei collections.

Museo degli strumenti musicali

MUSEUM OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

(Piazza Santa Croce a Gerusalemme)

This museum is the fruit of the obsessive passion of Evan Gorga (1865-1956), the great tenor who retired at the height of his career to pursue his passion of collecting musical instruments. He was able to collect about 150 thousand instruments in a few years’ time. Today, most of his huge collection is housed in the Samoggia building in the Circus Varianus archeological area, where visitors can admire, among other rarities, the 17th- century Barberini harp, a 16th-century Hans Muller harpsichord and a Cristofori piano dating back to the early 1700s.

palazzo braschi

PALAZZO BRASCHI (Piazza Navona)

Built in the 1700s upon the ruins of the 15th-century Palazzo Orsini, the building is perhaps the last example of papal nepotism. Pius VI, in fact, donated it to his nephew Luigi Braschi Onesti. But in 1871, his heirs donated it to the city of Rome and today, after various ups and downs, the building houses a rich collection of works, mostly landscape paintings of  the city during the Grand Tour age.