Museo Naturalistico Archeologico

The Museo Naturalistico Archeologico is divided into two sections: Natural History and Archaeology. The first is dedicated to illustrating the characteristics of the area, especially the Berici Hills, whose unique environment also includes several endemic flora and fauna.

The Archaeology section displays and preserves the most significant evidence of the ancient history of Vicenza area, from prehistory to the Lombard era.

The Prehistory section boasts a rich collection of stone tools, demonstrating human presence on the Berici Hills since the Middle Paleolithic, and continues with evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements in the Fimon Valleys, where the famous square-mouthed vases from the Molino Casarotto settlement originate.

The Iron Age is evidenced by materials from various settlements, including votive plaques with copper figures from a sanctuary located near what is now Piazzetta San Giacomo, which attest to the activity of this place of worship from the 4th to the 1st century BC.

The Roman Age is primarily represented by decorative and architectural finds from the Roman theater of Berga and the cryptoporticus in Piazza Duomo. A section is dedicated to Roman amphorae found in Vicenza. Furthermore, mosaic fragments from the city center are also present. Furthermore, a collection of ancient statuary, a gift from Gerolamo Egidio di Velo in the early 19th century, comes from Rome.

The exhibition end with a rich documentation of the Lombard presence in Vicenza area.

The complex housing the Museum occupies the site of the two Dominican cloisters of Santa Corona. The 17th-century smaller cloister adjoins the north side of the church. To the north are the remains of the ancient library, destroyed during the Second World War.
Built between 1496 and 1502, likely designed by Rocco da Vicenza, its remains separate the smaller cloister from a second cloister, with Vicenza stone columns adorned with Gothic capitals erected in the second half of the 15th century.
Subsequently, Muttoni designed the western façade, which has been repeatedly altered by subsequent interventions.
In addition to the convent fathers, the cloister rooms housed the Office of the Inquisition from the late 16th to the 18th century.
In 1811, the complex was used as a municipal college, then it housed an Austrian military hospital and later several schools (1867).
Subsequent interventions led to the creation of the current façade with a triple Ionic entrance marked by a rustic base, built in 1823 based on a design by Angelo Casarotti from Schio.
In 1877, at the initiative of industrialist Alessandro Rossi, it became home to the prestigious Istituto Tecnico Industriale, which in 1911 was renamed " Istituto tecnico Alessandro Rossi." The building remained the school's headquarters until 1962.
Museo Naturalistico Archeologico was inaugurated in September 1991, after partial restoration.