Centrale Montemartini

Located along the Via Ostiense on the left bank of the Tiber, in front of the former General Market, the Centrale Montemartini is an extraordinary example of the conversion of an industrial archeology building into a museum. The first public plant for the production of electricity, named after Giovanni Montemartini, is today the second exhibition pole of the Capitoline Museums and houses a considerable part of the classical antiquity sculptures that have come to light during the excavations carried out in Rome between the end of the 'Nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. The exhibition reconstructs the ancient monumental complexes tracing the development of the city from the Republican age up to the late imperial with episodes particularly significant and often almost unknown to the general public, as in the case of the huge mosaic with hunting scenes from S. Bibiana. The grandiose rooms of the Centrale and in particular the Machine Room with its precious Art Nouveau furniture preserve unaltered turbines, Diesel engines and the colossal steam boiler. In this fascinating and evocative setting, the ancient marbles shine for their transparent transparency and for the refinement of carving. It even seems that some masterpieces of ancient sculpture, such as the cycle of statues that decorated the pediment of the temple of Apollo Sosiano, the colossal acrolith representing the goddess Fortuna from Largo Argentina and the thoughtful figure of the muse Polimnia are exalted in this atmosphere that recalls from a side the monumental grandeur of ancient Rome and on the other a more recent past and the memory of one of the first Roman industrial environments.