Visit the Irpinia Provincial Museum

The museo irpino (Irpinia Museum) in Avellino is one of the most important museums of the whole province of Avellino, with its collections embracing all the cultural issues related to this territory.

The museum has two different locations: the Palazzo della Cultura (Culture Palace) and the former Carcere Borbonico (Bourbon Prison), and both of the sites are in piazza Alfredo de Marsico in the historic centre.

The Palazzo della Cultura’s ground floor houses the archaeological department that includes nine different rooms; each room is dedicated to a specific settlement from prehistory to late Roman period, focusing on five centuries.

The first floor houses the nativity scene department, the media library, the audio library and the video library; whereas the second floor houses the provincial library.

The ground floor of the former Carcere Borbonico complex houses most of the departments: the storage where all the archaeological finds are kept with an area dedicated to the Mefite Goddess that people can visit, the lapidario (outer courtyard), the Risorgimento department with around 328 finds recalling the history of both the Italian and the Irpinia Risorgimento, the auditorium together with the exhibiting rooms where temporary exhibitions are held.

The first floor houses the new Irpinia department, that is a journey through the cultural evolution of the Irpinia region. The second floor houses the provincial art gallery with paintings dating back to the 19th and 20th centuries, and the science department, with a collection of 100 tools dating back to late 19th century and early 20th century from different local educational institutes.