Piazza Duomo - 37044 Cologna Veneta (VR)
Tel. 0442 410667 (Museo) 0442 410662 (Biblioteca)
Web site http://www.comune.cologna-veneta.vr.it/museo.htm
Summary
The Archaeological Museum of Cologna Veneta, which is located in an elegant nineteenth-century palace, collects the archaeological documentation coming from the left side of the Adige river and covering a very wide chronological time period going from the Neolithic to the Lombard Age. Each of the three rooms is dedicated to important people from Cologna: Anna Rinaldi Gruber, a well-known local scholar, Cesare Gardellini, a municipal secretary and founder of the Museum, Eusebio Checchetti who, during the second world war, prevented the most important pieces from being certainly looted.
Collection history
The museum was created in 1896 after the accidental finding of the necropolis of Baldaria. The museum building was established by the then Municipal Secretary, Cesare Cardellini. The frequent and occasional discoveries of archaeological finds dating back both to the Roman Age and to previous periods, contributed to enrich the collection until it was necessary to change the museum location. Since 1991, the museum collection, previously kept in the Town Hall, has been located in the Palace of the former Mount of Piety in Piazza Duomo.
“Anna Rinaldi Gruber” Room
The first room collects the finds discovered in the area of Cologna dating back to the period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The first show case contains earthen items (carinate and globular cups) and items of the lithic industry (burins, end scrapers, cores and blade parts, two green polished stone axes) found nearby the site of Santa Giustina di Baldoria where a Neolithic village was located, related to the “Fiorano” culture. The second case displays items that can be referred to the Copper or Eneolithic Age (3rd millennium B.C.) brought back to light in different places of the area of Cologna. The grave goods including a copper halberd, a fragment of a dagger, a copper wire spiral and flint elements come from Spessa; a small storage of flint blades come from Bernardine di Coriano (Lante property) and lastly two green polished stone hatchets come from Roveredo di Guà and Sabbion dating back to the mid 4th millennium B.C. The third and fourth cases are dedicated to the settlement of the Bronze Age of Sabbionara di Veronella. In particular, the first display case exhibits the ceramic material which can be dated back to the first stage of occupation of the inhabited area (Recent Bronze Age, 13th- 12th century B.C.) including different types of cups, a biconical pot and two dolia. The following case exhibits finds related to the second peopling stage of this settlement, between the 10th and 9th century B.C., a period in which the village had an increasingly important role in the trade and exchange relationships in the area of Bassa Veronese. Here it is possible to see the following items: two violin-arch fibulas, chisels, pins, handled jars, biconical pots, loom weights, the needle of a twisting-arch fibula and bone and horn tools (small weeding hoes, a belt plate, a holed bone). Only few kilometres away from the site of Sabbionara, a very wide necropolis was found, in Desmontà. The grave yard covers a period of time going from the 11th to the 9th century B.C. The grave goods are very simple and usually made up of a biconical cinerary urn with a covering bowl, as well as fibulas, spindle whorls and jewels for the female graves or pins for the men. Quite interesting is the grave of Albaredo d’Adige which might belong to a young girl containing a torc, armillas, fibulas and a small foot-shaped feeding bottle. Very important is the display case containing the two bronze foil greaves decorated with water birds found in the necropolis of Desmontà.
“Cesare Gardellini” Room
The second room contains some objects of the area of Cologna Veneta which can be dated back to the Iron Age. The first four display cases are fully dedicated to the necropolis of Baldaria (9th- 6th century B.C. ) discovered at the end of the 19th century during the fill-up works for the new streambed of the river Guà and contain different types of fibulas (among which one with three little monkeys), pendants, bracelets, rings, needles, two belt plates decorated with spirals and water birds, the handles of a situla, glassy beads, a knife, different types of pins, cinerary urns, a shear, a large fork, a chisel, elements of a horse bite, hooks and discs. In the 80’s of the last century, nearby Baldoria, a protohistoric settlement was brought back to light, witnessed by some ceramic fragments, querns, weights, earthen rings, two flanged bronze axes, a large belt, a bronze hook, a fictile horse statuette, a drainer, reels and spindle whorls. The last display case contains material coming from different locations near Cologna: a flanged axe (8th century B.C.) from San Sebastiano di Pressana, a knife with a duck pattern (10th century B.C.) from Bernardine di Coriano, a boat-shaped fibula (6th century B.C.) from Cà del Bosco and a Celtic bronze storage (studs, buckle, different fibulas among which two mask-shaped ones) from Sant’Agata. In the last part of the room, there are six Roman amphorae, various stone fragments and Roman inscriptions hanging on the wall, a beautiful high medieval pergola with a peacock decorated on both sides and on the lower part, some trachyte pipes from Caneviera, two quern elements and a mortar.
"Eusebio Checchetti" Room
Inside the last room, there are some items from the Roman Age and the Early Middle Ages from the area of Cologna found particularly in funerary contexts. Grave goods come from the town of Sule, made up of a green glass plate, unguentaria and glass cups, lamps and a bone cylinder. Numerous Roman coins have been discovered in this area, among which a Hadrian’s denarius, mirrors, sigillata cups, a black painted dish, small amphorae, lamps, spoons, forks, a tintinnabulum, a hydraulic element, a conspicuous amount of glass items (urns, bottles, ribbed cups, sticks and unguentaria), olpes, a statuette of Mercury and a small pyramid. Important finds were also collected in the necropolis of Sant’Agata (1st century B.C. – 2nd century A.D.). They include grey clay cups, olpes, an askos, a patera, an aryballos, small lamps, glasses, earthen jars and unguentaria, bottles, a hydria and glassy aryballos. In the middle of the room, there is a reconstruction of an amphora-shaped grave with a large tile cover and grave goods. The necropolis of Gazzuoli Sabbion (1st century A.D.) provided with different items belonging to the grave goods made up of glass (hydriai, phials, unguentaria) and ceramic material (grey clay cups, small sigillata cups, Aco-type glasses, lamps, utilitarian ceramic cups). Olpes, lamps (of which one with Jupiter Hammon), a fragment of an unguentarium, a bronze mirror and a fibula come from the grave yard of Gazzuolo Minerbe (1st-2nd century A.D.). Inside the same display case, there are also bronze materials of the Roman and Lombard Age (fibulas, pins, appliqués, bracelets). Lastly, there is a military mutilated statuette of the emperor Magnentius (350-353 A.D.).
Visiting
Admission: Negli orari di apertura; Ticket: No;
School access
Disabled access
TipologyWhenSpecs
Summer/WinterMondayUpon reservation
Summer/WinterTuesdayUpon reservation
Summer/WinterWednesdayUpon reservation
Summer/WinterThursdayUpon reservation
Summer/WinterFridayUpon reservation
Summer/WinterSaturdayUpon reservation
Summer/WinterSunday10.00 – 12.00 e 15.00 – 18.00


Recommended tour time (minutes): 45
Services for visitors
Toilet
Rest points
Educational Services
Guide a stampa
Italian
Information boards
Italian
Mobile cards
Italian, English, German, French
Captions under exhibits
Italian
Multilingual ads: Inglese Francese Tedesco
Information sheets
Guided Tours
Bibliography
La preistoria e l’età romana del territorio sinistra Adige 1990, a cura di Zorzin R., Cologna Veneta.
L’abitato e la necropoli di Sabbionara di Veronella 1992, Cologna Veneta .
Musei e raccolte archeologiche del Veneto 2004, a cura di Di Mauro A., Dosson di Casier, pp. 125.
Dal Cero B. 2005, Il Museo Civico Archeologico di Cologna Veneta , in Archeologia e idrografia del Veronese a cent’anni dalla deviazione del fiume Guà (1904-2004), a cura di Leonardi G., Rossi S., Cologna Veneta, pp. 87-103.
Bonetto J. 2009, Veneto (Archeologia delle Regioni d'Italia), Roma, pp. 360-361.