POMPEII, Italy (AP) – Decades after suffering bombing and earthquake damage, the Museum of Pompeii has been reborn, showing off beautiful finds from excavations of the ancient Roman city.
Officials at the archaeological park of the city’s ruins, destroyed in AD 79 by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, inaugurated the museum on Monday.
The museum is known as the Antiquarium and gives Pompeii a permanent exhibition space. Visitors can see sections of frescoed walls of the city’s sprawling villas, examples of some of the graffiti excavated by archaeologists, as well as household items ranging from silver spoons to a bronze food warmer, items from everyday life created by the volcanic explosion.
First opened in about 1873, the Antiquarium was damaged by bombing during World War II and again in 1980 when a deadly earthquake rocked the Naples area. Since the earthquake, the museum has been closed, although it reopened in 2016 as a space for temporary exhibitions.
The Antiquarium’s displays also document Pompeii’s history as a settlement, several centuries before it became a thriving Roman city.
Due to the travel restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, currently only visitors from the Campania region of Italy, including the Naples region and the ruins of Pompeii, can see the museum.
Pompeii is one of Italy’s top tourist attractions, and when mass tourism finally picks up again, entrance tickets to the ruins also include a visit to the Antiquarium.
The reopening of the museum after so many decades of toil is “a sign of great hope at a very difficult time,” said Massimo Osanna, Pompeii’s director. He was referring to the severe blow that the pandemic’s travel restrictions have dealt with tourism, one of Italy’s biggest sources of income.
On display in the museum’s last room are poignant casts made of the remains of some of the residents of Pompeii who attempted to flee but were overcome by explosions of volcanic gases or battered by a shower of lava rocks ejected by Vesuvius.
“I especially like touching the last room, which is dedicated to the eruption, and where to see the objects that have been distorted by the heat of the eruption, the casts of the victims, the casts of the animals,” said Osanna . “Really, you are touching with your hand the incredible drama that was the eruption of AD 79.”
Large parts of Pompeii have yet to be excavated. While tourism virtually came to a halt during the pandemic, archaeologists have continued to work.
Just a month ago, Osanna revealed the discovery of an old fast food restaurant in Pompeii. Completely excavated, the find helped reveal dishes that were popular with the inhabitants of the ancient city who apparently liked eating out, including what was on the menu the day Pompeii was destroyed.
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D’Emilio reported from Rome.