Roman Naval Museum

Linked to the name of the illustrious archaeologist, scholar of Roman and medieval history Nino Lamboglia, the prestigious Roman Naval Museum, located inside Palazzo Peloso Cepolla, exhibits the important finds recovered from the wreckage of the Roman trade vessel found in the depths of the Gallinaria island : crockery, naval equipment, game pawns, small tools in lead for fishing as well as about one hundred wine amphorae, arranged as they were originally on their ship, in a special wooden rack that reproduces the "belly".

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The Palace also houses the Collection of pottery from Savona of the ancient Pharmacy of the Hospital of Albenga, comprising a hundred specimens, with a characteristic white-blue decoration, produced in Savona and Albissola between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Other finds instead come from the wreck of the Roman ship of Diano Marina, among which stand out some doliola, large terracotta containers. The permanent exhibition "Prehistory in Val Pennavaira" completes the museum tour. The exhibited material covers a time span of about 15,000 years, during which the cultures of the hunter groups, the first farmers-breeders, followed one another to reach the age of metals and the threshold of history.

The Roman Ship

The wreck of the Roman ship of Albenga is the most famous of all those discovered so far in the western Mediterranean, because on it have been made, since 1950, the first works of recovery of amphorae with the intervention of the ship "Artiglio", and the first systematic surveys of the remains of a Roman cargo ship, intended for the transport of goods. It is found a mile from the coast, at a depth of 42 meters, in front of Albenga.

It has been the subject of thirteen underwater excavation campaigns that have allowed to gradually document the elements of the load and the construction characteristics of the hull. It has also been ascertained that this is the largest Roman transport vessel known to date in the Mediterranean, with a load exceeding 10,000 amphorae, and therefore with a net capacity of 450/500 tons. The amphorae contained wine from Campania destined for the markets of southern France and Spain. Along with wine, black-glazed ceramics and other types of pottery were exported.

Objects of personal use of the crew and of the armed escort on board (helmets) have also been recovered, the latter necessary to defend themselves from pirates who infested especially the Ligurian coasts. All the elements collected allow us to date the shipwreck of the Roman ship of Albenga between 100 and 90 BC, which coincides with the granting of the Latin right to the Ligurian populations, with the Romanization of the region and the consequent development of the cities.

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The museums of Albenga