Girolamo Rossi Civic Archaeological Museum - Fortress of the Annunziata

The Archaeological Civic Museum, established in 1938 and named after Girolamo Rossi, the discoverer of the Roman city of Albintimilium, has been housed since 1989 on the mezzanine floor of the Annunziata Fortress, built between 1831 and 1836 by the Savoy family on the site where it stood since 1503 the homonymous convent of the Observant Minor Fathers.

From its parade ground there is an extraordinary view that includes, to the west, the plain of Latte, the Hanbury botanical gardens and the Balzi Rossi caves, up to Cap Esterel; to the east, the modern city, beyond which the remains of the Roman municipium are preserved and the gaze can be pushed towards the tip of Sant'Ampelio in Bordighera, to get lost by rotating in the marine horizon.

The Fort of the Annunziata was built, at the behest of the Savoy government, between 1831 and 1837 in order to strengthen the western border of its domains. It constituted the redoubt of the overhanging Fort San Paolo, built in the 13th century by the Genoese following the conquest of Ventimiglia (1222), to which it was connected with underground passages and which in turn was restored by the Savoyards, after Ventimiglia had become a military stronghold. in 1814.

The preparatory work was supervised by the then young lieutenant of the Royal Corps of the Savoy engineers, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, who stayed in Ventimiglia between 1828 and 1829, and King Carlo Alberto himself, who arrived in the city on 2 April 1836 to visit the works. The Fort or Ridotta dell'Annunziata was built over the remains of the Convent of the Franciscan Minor Observants, of which it still maintains the dedication, erected in 1503 on the remains of the previous church of San Lazzaro, mentioned in documents at least starting from the fourteenth century with the annex hermitage intended as a hospital.

In 1883, after the transfer of Nice, the function of Ventimiglia as a stronghold was declared terminated, the Fort San Paolo demolished and the Ridotta downgraded to military barracks, with the name of "Caserma Umberto I". In 1931 the raised floor was built to house a contingent of Bersaglieri, since 1989 the seat of the “Girolamo Rossi” Civic Archaeological Museum.

The Ridotta dell'Annunziata, owned by the Liguria Region granted on a thirty-year loan to the Municipality of Ventimiglia, has been the subject in recent years of an important restoration and recovery project financed with Community funds POR FESR Axis 4, which has allowed the recovery of the rooms on the ground floor, the splendid terrace overlooking the sea of ??Punta Rocca, and the spaces below, which will host an extension of the exhibition itinerary of the "Rossi" Archaeological Museum, which will soon be inaugurated.

THE MUSEUM
The museum displays over 700 artifacts recovered during the nineteenth-century excavations of Albintimilium, in particular from its western necropolis and the theater, but also from the antiquarian market, particularly flourishing in that period, favored by the discovery of the Roman city and by the foreign presence established. on the Riviera.

In the various rooms of the Museum all the Roman inscriptions of Albintimilium are exhibited, which constitute one of the largest lapidaries in all of Liguria; the collection of busts, heads and reliefs, which are part of Thomas Hanbury's collection, including some pieces of extraordinary importance; a vast sample of ceramic furnishings in use between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. in the Roman city, including cups, paterae, glasses, oil lamps, olpai, jugs from various parts of the empire, a collection of glasses, among which stands out, deliberately isolated, a cup carved with the figure of ictiocentaur, half man and half monster fish, from the 3rd century AD, together with a square-section bottle with a trademark on the bottom, intended to contain and transport “aromata et medicamenta”, dense and precious perfumes or ointments.

 

The Historical and Prehistoric Section

On the floor below the terrace of the fortress there is the new exhibition itinerary dedicated to the history of the site with the reproductions of the documents and the ancient views and plans of the chapel of San Lazzaro, the Convent of the Annunziata and the Savoy stronghold with the Ridotta and its subsequent transformations into the barracks, first of the Bersaglieri and then of the 89 Infantry Regiment, also present war relics, witnesses of the last world conflict. In the second part, an overview of the Valley of Wonders with the exhibition of some of the more than 4000 casts made by Carlo Conti of the most important groups of engravings, a symbol of prehistoric and protohistoric rock art, treasure of the intemelio territory.

Map: Girolamo Rossi Civic Archaeological Museum - Fortress of the Annunziata