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The Museo Territoriale del Lago di Bolsena: archaeology and an aquarium inside a medieval fortress
The Territorial Museum of Lake Bolsena di Bolsena is housed in Rocca Monaldeschi della Cervara, a fortress built in successive steps between the 12th and 14th centuries in the heart of the old town. Amid stone towers and courtyards, the museum traces the history of the largest volcanic lake in Europe: from prehistory to the Etruscans, from Rome to the Middle Ages, and on to the animal species that still inhabit its waters today.
From the Capriola Necropolis to the Throne of the Panthers
The museum itinerary opens with the volcanic geology of the territory. The Bronze Age and Iron Age finds are largely recovered from the lake bed, preserved so remarkably well that they appear to have been freshly excavated. The Etruscan section displays the funerary assemblages from the Necropolis of Capriola (late 8th – mid-7th century BC). On the upper floor stands the museum's most astonishing piece: the Trono delle Pantere (Throne of the Panthers), a life-size terracotta seat associated with the rites of Bacchus (Dionysus). Deliberately destroyed in 186 BC by decree of the Roman Senate - the Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus - it has been painstakingly reassembled in a lengthy restoration.
The Aquarium
Since 2011, the lower floor has housed an aquarium displaying around 30 species of fish, amphibians and crustaceans in 25 tanks that recreate real freshwater habitats: spring, marsh, lake and river mouth. Exhibits range from white-clawed crayfish and pike to carp and sturgeon.
In the adjacent Palazzo Monaldeschi, visitors can explore medieval ceramics and wrecks recovered from the lake.
