The Velo Collection

Girolamo Egidio di Velo, a Vicenza nobleman with a passion for Palladian study into ancient history and lover of antiques, excavated the baths of Caracalla in Rome between 1824 and 1827.

Using a “wide-layer instead of deep-trench” digging method, one of the first examples of emerging modern archaeology, he brought to light the whole structure of the baths, as well as mosaics and fragments of statues and marble decorations, confirming Andrea Palladio’s theory that this complex was a building used for public bathing.

The exceptional nature of this excavation made di Velo very famous, but criticism and suspicion led to his being tried for embezzlement.
In 1827, after the trial found him not guilty, the materials found in the excavation area and 22 sculptures from the storerooms of the Papal Galleries were taken to Velo d’Astico and later donated to the Vicenza City Council, forming the initial collection for an archaeology museum, except for a few pieces of columns, which were used to decorate Palladio's funeral monument.
Among the pieces on show, there is a wonderful torso of a satyr (or faun?) at rest, a fountain mascaron in porphyry, a woman’s head and a bearded head in high-relief, all dating back to the 2nd Century A.D. and found during excavation of the Caracall spa, as well as the statues and heads of the collection from the Vatican Museums.