The Albornoz Fortress and the National Archaeological Museum

The Albornoz Fortress, seat of the National Archaeological Museum of Viterbo, whose last three sections are being completed, was built in 1354 by Cardinal Gil Alvarez Carrillo de Albornoz. After a series of destructions and renovations, in 1506 Julius II called the Bramante to whom we owe the courtyard and the central fountain. After the last devastations of the war, the recovery carried out by the Civil Engineers from 1960 to 1979 was taken care of by the B.A.A. Superintendence of Latium together with the Archaeological Superintendence for Southern Etruria, which assigned the structure as a museum. Currently the ground floor houses the section "Etruscan Architecture in the Viterbo area", with finds from the Swedish excavations of Acquarossa and S. Giovenale, through a series of interesting reconstructions of archaic Etruscan houses, with mostly original elements. On the first floor there are finds coming from the Etruscan-Roman centre of Musarna, from which comes the exceptional mosaic with Etruscan alphabet inscription and the sculptural and architectural decoration coming from the theatre of Ferento, with the cycle of the Muses.