Housed in a fifteenth-century building in the historic centre of Gavardo, the museum was founded in 1956 by the ‘Grotte Gavardo Group’ and later transferred to the municipality. The museum offers visitors an overview of the history of the Sabbia Valley and the area to the west of Lake Garda. Through the museum’s rooms, the history of man can be traced from the Middle Paleolithic (100,000 years ago) to the Post-Renaissance era. The exhibition, currently under revision, offers a selection of finds from the local area, from the Pleistocene fauna of the Buco del Frate, or ‘Friar hole’, with a complete skeleton of a cave bear, to items from the 17th century military camps of Faita. It focuses on key settings, such as the extraordinary complex of Mount Covolo, a settlement from the late Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age, or of Colle San Martino di Gavardo, inhabited from the Early Bronze Age to the High Middle ages. One room is dedicated to the pile-dwelling site of Lucone di Polpenazze, of the Bronze Age, from which come artefacts of organic nature, such as wooden sickles, linen fabrics and numerous ceramic and terracotta objects, such as the famous ‘enigmatic tablets’, in bronze and horn-bone, as well as a dug-out canoe, of which its mould is preserved. Regarding Roman times, of particular note is the rich necropolis of Lugone Salo, with both cremation and interment tombs and tomb decorations from first to the fourth century AD, among which includes a famous figurative water canteen. The new exhibition arrangement will show complexes such as the prehistoric necropolis of Corna Nibbia di Bion and the Roman village of Castel Antico di Idro. The museum promotes the study and popularization of the archaeology of the Valley Sabbia, with the organization of conferences, special exhibitions and the regular publication of its Annals. The museum offers an educational service and a library for consultation by appointment.
OPENING TIMES:
Monday: 9 am to 1 pm
Tuesday: 9 am to 1 pm
Wednesday: 9 am to 1 pm
Thursday: 9 am to 1 pm and 2 pm to 5 pm
Friday: 9 am to 1 pm and 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Sunday: 2:30 pm to 6:30 pm (the first Sunday of every month with guided tours and workshops)
Closed on Saturdays and national public holidays.
Openings are arranged for special exhibitions and events. Outside normal opening hours groups can visit on reservation.
