CENTRALE MONTEMARTINI

Description

Essentials about the Centrale Montemartini in brief

The Centrale Montemartini is the newest exhibition venue among Rome’s municipal museums. It is a former power plant that now houses about 400 Roman statues, funerary inscriptions and mosaics that were previously exhibited in the Capitoline Museums. The great charm of this “power plant museum” comes from the juxtaposition of ancient art and industrial architecture, in which the “modern” machines provide a backdrop and contrast to the ancient sculptures.

The history of the Centrale Montemartini

The Montemartini power plant, commissioned in 1912, was obsolete after 50 years of operation, so in 1962 electricity generation was finally stopped. In the following two decades the buildings fell into disrepair, the machinery was dismantled and the site was used for other purposes, until the operating company decided to restore the main building of the plant with the machinery room and the boiler room. For this purpose, part of the former machinery was also put back in its original place.

The collection of the Centrale Montemartini

In 1997, the sculpture collection and other parts of the Capitoline Museums had to be closed to the public due to renovation work. Meanwhile, the sculptures were given an initially temporary home in the rooms of the Montemartini headquarters. The juxtaposition of ancient works of art and modern industrial architecture was a great success. Therefore, in 2005, when the work in the Capitoline Museums was completed, the power plant was transformed into a permanent museum as a branch of the Capitoline Museums.

Most of the exhibited finds are the result of comparatively recent acquisitions and come from excavations carried out after the unification of Italy, mainly in the ancient gardens of Rome. The structure of the exhibition clarifies the origin of the finds and is divided into three main thematic areas: The Roman Republic in the Hall of Columns, the Monumental Center of Rome in the Hall of Machines, the Gardens, the Imperial Residences and Domus in the Boiler Room.