The museum was born in the early 1950s thanks to the rector of the church, Pietro Monti: the restoration works of the ancient chapel dedicated to the African martyr Santa Restituta (saint) (whose relics came to Ischia in the fifth century and were placed here before been moved to Naples in the 9th century), located in the Santa Restituta square in the center of Lacco Ameno, brought to light an early Christian crypt from just below the floor in 1951. The discovery of a terra cotta lantern dating from the 6th century to the 7th century AD was an incentive for excavation works, which soon led to the discovery of an ancient Christian cemetery and numerous Phoenician, Punic and Greek-Roman graves. The excavations and the museum were set up in 1974; currently the museum is superordinate to the Curia of Naples and to the Superintendence for the Archaeological Heritage of the provinces of Naples and Caserta.
The peculiarity of the Museum is represented by the combination of the excavation areas and the museum entity: it was built on the sites of the ancient settlements and ended up collecting, over time, the relics from the other parts of the island.
The Museum, which is accessed from the courtyard of the Church, occupies an area of about 1550 square meters, divided in two floors. On the top floor the Santa Restituta Museum has three rooms with display of furnishings, paintings, sacred vestments, reliquaries, processional crosses, Neapolitan seventeenth-century statues, medieval pottery. The underlying archaeological area is divided into four areas.
THE I SECTOR: It is the Greek industrial zone with kiln factories, clay processing workshops, decanting trays dating from the 7th to the 2nd centuries. B.C.
The II SECTOR: Here we can find the walls in reticulated work, visible at the bottom; other carved tombs on the Roman floor and a local stone altar that protects an urn with relics of S. Restituta.
The III SECTOR: Wide underground hall housed in the museum: it collects the signs of the presence and life of the first Greek settlers.
The IV SECTOR: Sub-Divine Christian Cemetery. Around the cemetery air you can admire the numerous tombs overlaying on a triple floor.
The Museum is definitely worth a visit thanks to its various kinds of ancient tools and a cemetery with tombs from various eras and its “industrial zone”, dedicated to the production of clay vases and containers.
Contact Details:
Address: Chiesa e Museo Archeologico Santa Restituta – Piazza Santa Restituta, 10 – 80076 Lacco Ameno
Tel: (00 39) 081 980538