Archaeological Museum

The Museum is housed in a former convent, which in turn was built on an area previously occupied by a Roman villa of the first century, by the walls and the nearby Roman circus facing the imperial palace from the late third century:

two towers of this period are still houesed in the walls,, one of which, 14 m high, was incorporated in the Monastery. The Museum presents 5 sections: Greek, Etruscan, Roman, barbaric and Gandhara and it is important for an understanding of the history of Milan to the origins (very few know that Milan has been also the capital during a period of the Roman Empire)

In the entrance hall a large plastic overlaps the current city of Milan with the ancient Mediolanum (late imperial), with the main monuments (three-dimensional) and structures of the ancient city, like the walls of the emperor Massimiano period, the circus, the theater, the amphitheater, the baths, the ancient Christian basilicas, the imperial palace, roads and waterways.

Of particular value we report the Parabiago plate: It is a big silver plate dedicated to the oriental cult of the goddess Cybele, embossed decoration and representing the goddess along with Attis, her beloved mortal, at the center of a cosmogony map , which includes also symbols of life, death and rebirth. The finding is very important as it belongs to a time when the pagan cults coexisted with the Christian religion.