Anyone travelling between Caserta and Benevento usually drives through Maddaloni without stopping, perhaps on the way to the Ponti della Valle. We'd ask you to set aside a couple of hours for a museum few people know about, yet one that tells a story spanning almost a thousand years: that of Calatia, the ancient city buried beneath the eastern outskirts of Maddaloni. It is a small, well-designed museum that you can explore at a relaxed pace, and it explains clearly how the communities of the Campanian plain lived before and during Roman times.
Calatia, a city on the road to Rome
Calatia began as an indigenous settlement, probably already inhabited in the Bronze Age, and grew during the 1st millennium BC in contact with the Etruscan-Campanian world. Its fortunes changed with the arrival of the Appian Way: the "queen of roads" bent its route precisely to pass through the city, which became an important stop between Capua and Benevento. Little of Calatia survives above ground today, but excavations have uncovered hundreds of burials and finds covering a span from the end of the 8th century BC to late Roman times.
The museum was created to give these finds a home close to where they were discovered. It opened in 2003 and in recent years has undergone maintenance work and a new layout: to find out whether it is open and how to visit, always check the official website of the Ministry of Culture.
The Casino della Starza Penta and the Carafa family
Part of the charm lies in the building itself. The museum occupies the Casino della Starza Penta, one of the residences of the Carafa della Stadera, feudal lords of Maddaloni from 1465. In the 16th century it was a fortified farmhouse, of which two watchtowers survive; between the late 17th and early 18th centuries the Carafa turned it into a hunting lodge and pleasure villa, with a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, completed in 1701, featuring marble altars and a vault decorated with white and gold stucco.
Its most prestigious moment came with Charles of Bourbon, who stayed here during his hunting trips: its position, on the road to Naples, was extremely convenient. After the king left for Spain the building fell into decline, changed owners and uses several times, even serving as barracks and then as military property, before passing to the cultural heritage authorities. As you walk in, look up at the Carafa coat of arms on the vault of the entrance hall: it is the first clue to the long life of this house.
The museum route
The collections are spread over two floors. On the ground floor you start with the territory and the city, then enter the world of the necropolises: a life-size reconstruction shows the different types of tombs found in the eastern and western burial grounds. This is where children usually linger longest, because they finally understand what an ancient burial looked like.
On the upper floor, in what were the private and reception rooms of the residence, the story shifts to the people:
- Ancient roads: how they were built, how long journeys took, and how the post and relay stations worked.
- The aristocracies of the 6th and 5th centuries BC, with rich grave goods and imported Attic vases.
- Daily life in the Orientalising period, with a section devoted to women's dress: rings, fibulae and scarabs, but also spools, loom weights and small jars for perfumes and ointments.
We loved one detail: the section on women's lives is set up in the very rooms that 18th-century archive records call the "women's quarters", the rooms reserved for the ladies of the Carafa household.
The pieces not to miss
Among the display cases, two objects stayed with us. The first is a black-figure Attic amphora showing two warriors fighting over the body of a fallen comrade: the scene recalls the episode in the Iliad where Menelaus and Euphorbus fight over the body of Patroclus. The second is a bronze dinos, a large banqueting vessel from the late 6th or early 5th century BC, with a lid decorated with a small cockerel. These are objects that show how closely these families were involved in Mediterranean trade.
The immersive room on the Appian Way
The museum makes great use of multimedia, and does so with restraint. There is an immersive room that reconstructs the stretch of the Appian Way between Calatia and Rome, a virtual library on roads, journeys and stations, video stations and an interactive table. There are also panels in Braille and audio and video content in Italian and English. It was precisely for its displays and educational work that the museum received a special mention in 2017 as part of the ICOM Italia award.
Our tips for your visit
- Allow an hour to an hour and a half: the museum isn't large, but the multimedia sections deserve time.
- It is a good stop for families with school-age children, thanks to the reconstructions and interactive installations.
- Opening times, tickets and bookings change: check everything on the official website before you set off.
Getting there and when to go
The museum is located on Via Caudina, the road that runs from Maddaloni towards the Caudine Valley and Benevento. By car it is just a few minutes from the centre of Caserta; Maddaloni also has a railway station. As it is an indoor museum, it is a good idea in any season, including rainy days or the hottest summer afternoons.
Nearby
The visit pairs perfectly with the great tuff arches of the Bourbon aqueduct: read The Carolino Aqueduct and the Ponti della Valle. If you want to keep following the ancient Appian Way, the next stop is ancient Capua with The Campanian Amphitheatre and the Mithraeum of Santa Maria Capua Vetere. For all our other ideas, see our guide Caserta and its surroundings.