Well! Four decades is long enough. It is time to call upon the dead and bring them back to life, and so the museum was inaugurated on Monday.
Long after a sudden volcanic explosion destroyed the city of Pompeii, finding out how an entire city was preserved under volcanic ashes seemed more than interesting. Now, many thanks to the reopening of Pompeii’s museum, knowing about this incredible natural incident or as some say, horrible disaster, is possible again. Why? Because it was not just the volcano but also this special site suffered from a World War II bombing and a massive earthquake in 1980.
Antiquarium gives Pompeii a permanent exhibition space, where visitors could see sections of frescoed walls from the city’s excavated villas and samples of some of the drawings buried under all those ashes which archaeologists dug up.
Presently, only visitors from Italy’s Campania region can visit the Antiquarium, due to Italy’s COVID-19 pandemic travel bans. Once these restrictions are ultimately lifted, tickets for the Pompeii ruins will include the museum as well.
Massimo Osanna, Pompeii’s director told the reporters that “the reopening is a sign of solid hope during these very difficult moments. Though the museum is filled with artifacts that depict the life of Pompeians before the tragic explosion of Mount Vesuvius, there is one room that we think is especially memorable. Above all, I guess the last room, the one dedicated to the eruption, and where on display are the objects deformed by the heat of the eruption, the casts of the victims, the casts of the animals, would catch more attention from the visitors because touching all those mentioned things is permitted. Indeed, one touches with one’s hand the incredible drama that the 79 A.D. eruption was is more than just an experience.”