Museo Archeologico Regionale Pietro Griffo. Agrigento

The Archaeological Museum of Agrigento stands on a small hillock in the centre of a valley, the cradle of the ancient city. Surrounded by imposing natural scenery, the Museum is located in the Valley of the Temples Park and occupies the old Cistercian abbey of San Nicola, to which is added the building designed by Franco Minissi and constructed in the 1960s. The entrance courtyard is located on the border between the abbey and the new building. Here, very distant ages seem to meet and establish a silent dialogue. A marvellous fusion of ancient buildings and modern structures, the Archaeological Museum exhibits well over five thousand artefacts that, arranged according to chronological and topographical criteria, illustrate the history of the Agrigento area from prehistoric times to the end of the Greco-Roman era. Among the absolute masterpieces that the museum holds are the Ephebus of Agrigento, the colossal telamon of the Olympeion, and the ceramics collection boasts the Crater with the Death of Patroclus.