Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini

A branch of the Musei Capitolini in a municipal power station, where Roman sculpture stands among turbines, diesel engines and a steam boiler. Open Tuesday to Sunday 09:00 to 19:00, last entry an hour before closing, closed on Mondays, 1 May and 25 December; from 24 to 31 December it opens 09:00 to 14:00, and on 1 January 2026 from 11:00 to 20:00. Admission is 11.00 euro full and 6.50 euro reduced, with a seven-day Capitolini Card covering the Musei Capitolini and this museum at 15.50 euro full and 11.50 euro reduced. Among the works shown are the pediment statues of the temple of Apollo Sosianus, the colossal acrolith of Fortuna from Largo Argentina, the muse Polimnia, the seated girl, the portrait of Cleopatra, the Marsyas and the hunting mosaic from Santa Bibiana.

History

The thermoelectric station was inaugurated in 1912 under mayor Ernesto Nathan, following the referendum of 20 September 1909 on municipalising public services, which also created the AEM, today's Acea. In 1913 the plant was named for Giovanni Montemartini, Nathan's technical assessor, who died during a council session. It was sited between via Ostiense and the Tiber for water, rail and road, and beyond the customs boundary, so that its fuel paid no duty; steam turbines carried the base load and diesel engines the peaks. It was decommissioned in the mid-1960s, and Acea converted the Sala Macchine and the newer boiler hall into an art centre in the late 1980s. Capitoline sculpture was moved here in 1997 during the restoration of the Musei Capitolini, for the exhibition Le macchine e gli dei in October 1997; the museum became permanent in 2001, and in November 2016 a new room opened for the three carriages of the train of Pius IX, of 1858. The Sala Macchine keeps its Liberty-style fittings.

History

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