Museo Archeologico di Santa Scolastica (Archaeological Museum of Santa Scolastica), Bari

The Archaeological Museum of Santa Scolastica is a rich trove of Apulian history housed in the former Benedictine monastery of Santa Scolastica. This site retains layers of history through its architectural transformations-from its legendary founding around the 10th–11th centuries to the additions of a 16th‑century defensive bastion.

The museum’s origins trace back to 1875, when Professor Nitto De Rossi began assembling a collection that would lay the foundation for what opened to the public in 1890 at the Ateneo Square. It wasn’t until 2001 that the museum relocated into the restored monastic complex, and after extensive renovations, its new exhibition spaces finally opened around 2018.

Inside, visitors embark on a compelling chronological journey through Apulia’s past. The collections span from prehistoric tools and ceramics to Daunian, Peucetian, and Messapian geometric pottery, as well as Greek, Byzantine, Arab‑Norman, and medieval jewelry and artifacts. Reconstruction of the museum’s narration divides the exhibits into thematic sections such as Prehistory and Protohistory, Ancient Peoples of Apulia, Iapygians and Greeks, and Archaeology of Bari-plus a special display about life in the monastery itself.

Visitors are treated not only to artifacts but to the archaeological area of San Pietro, accessible directly from the monastery’s bastion, which offers real remnants of past settlements beneath its walls. Multimedia installations consciously enrich the experience, providing contextual depth to architectural and artistic heritage-particularly of Byzantine Bari and monastic life.