The National Archaeological Museum has been located, since 1993, in the Museum Citadel complex in Arsenale Square.
Its establishment dates back to 1800, when Viceroy Charles Felix had the Cabinet of Archaeology and Natural History set up in a room of the Viceroy’s palace at the suggestion of Cav. Lodovico Baylle, entrusting it to the care of Cav. Leonardo De Prunner. Thanks to the work of De Prunner and Baylle, the collection grew more and more, opening to the public in 1802. Later, in 1805, the viceroy donated the collection to the Royal University of Cagliari in the Via Università building. The exhibition spaces were expanded a first time in 1857, expanding further in the following years thanks to donations and new excavation campaigns. In 1895 the exhibition halls were moved to some rooms of the Palazzo Vivanet in Via Roma, and then were again moved to the space formerly occupied by the Reale Zecca in Piazza Indipendenza, where the Regio Museo Archeologico was built according to a design by Dionigi Scano. Antonio Taramelli, who directed the Museum between 1903 and 1933, played a leading role in the formation and development of the Museum’s collections and especially in the creation of this last, important exhibition. It was only in 1993 that the collections were moved to their current location in the Museum Citadel.
The second floor exhibition has the characteristics of a summarized ‘show’ of the cultural events that occurred on the Island from the Ancient Neolithic to the Early Middle Ages. The remaining two exhibition floors are arranged according to topographical criteria with the presentation, by location, of the most significant contexts. The third floor currently houses the “Mont’e Prama 1974-2014” exhibition. Twenty-eight restored limestone sculptures depicting archers, warriors, and boxers are on display in the exhibition. Also coming from the same area are nuraghe models and some stone betili.
