Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Paestum

National Archaeological Museum of Paestum
The National Archaeological Museum of Paestum is one of the most important archaeological museums of Southern Italy. It is located in front of the Archaeological Park, in the ancient city, and is organised in such a way as to narrate, through the exhibits, the history of Paestum, at first Greek colony with the name of Poseidonia and then Roman and Lucan city.

The Museum is divided into three sections:
-Before Poseidonia. The land south of the Sele in Prehistoric and Protohistoric age (upper gallery)
-From Poseidonia to Paestum. Since the foundation of the Greek city until the end of the Lucan hegemony (ground floor)
-Roman Paestum (first floor).

Inside you can admire the exhibition of archaic metopes of the shrine of Hera at the mouth of the Sele, and trace the birth of the city and the organization of its private and public spaces. There are rooms for urban and suburban shrines and necropolis. Of particular importance is the Tomb of the Diver: a grave made of five limestone slabs that, at the time of discovery, were thoroughly interconnected with each other and stuccoed. The floor was excavated in the natural rock ground. The exceptional nature of the discovery is that the lateral walls and the roof are completely plastered and decorated with paintings, using a true fresco technique.

The National Archaeological Museum of Paestum is situated within the walls of the ancient city.
Next to the Museum, there is the Church of SS. Annunziata, commonly referred to as Paleo-Christian Basilica, flanked by a 18th century’s episcopal palace that, prior to the construction of the Museum, housed a collection of the archaeological finds.

In 1999 the Museum's collections was reorganized and a new section, dedicated to Roman Paestum, was created.

The Museum has a teaching room, with rooms for conferences and projection, a rich archive, graphic lab, restoration lab and a big storage area: an innovative and almost unique listing system and arrangement of painted tombs’ slabs found in the necropolis.

Opening times
Every day from 8.30 am to 7.30 pm (ticket office closes at 6.45 pm).
Closed on every 1st and 3rd Monday, 25th December, 1st January, 1st May.

Price
Museum+archaeologic park+ Rosantico exhibit : full price €10- cheap €5

Museum+archaeologic park+ Velia archaeological park+Rosantico exhibit (valid for 3 days): full price €11-cheap €5.50

Museum+Rosantico exhibit (you can purchase it only in the day when the archaeological park is closed): full price €7 – cheap €3.50

Cheap ticket is for all UE citizens aged between 18 and 24 and for teachers
Free entry for UE citizens aged under 18 and over 65