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Archaeological Museum was a Benedictine monastery “Santa Maria del Soccorso”, better known as Badia. It is one of the richest and most interesting of Sicily and preserves numerous finds coming from the territory of Licata.
The museum is divided into several rooms according to archaeological periods. At the entrance you can notice the wooden sculpture of the Swabian Eagle, coat of arms of the city, and a display cabinet with the ceramic finds, found inside the monastery. Along the cloister there is a square structure of the late ‘500, in which there are sculptures of a certain value, such as the four cardinal virtues of the fifteenth century, Madonna del Soccorso statue of gaginiana school (1470 )and a large phitos.
The first rooms are home to the findings of prehistory, from the Neolithic to the Ancient Bronze, where you can see some exceptional findings, such as the obsidian and a blood cell bone, of which the use is unknown. Significant is the collection of ceramics from the site of Muculufa, a hill located in the valley of the Salso river, about 20 kilometers east of licata. The discovery of all this pottery suggests that there had to be a great production due to a single artist, the “Master of Muculufa” and that gave rise to a well-defined style.
Many statues of deities and offerers, amphorae and Greek pottery distinguish the other halls, up to the large hall that houses the findings of the Greek-Roman age of Mount Sant’Angelo (IV – I sec. a.c.)where according to the official archaeology was located the polis of Finziade.
The most excellent finds of the museum are represented by the precious treasury, called “Tesoretto della Signora”
(Treasury of the Lady), discovered in 1998 inside one of the houses of the polis. These are coins from the Roman republican age of 215 – 217 b.C. and gold jewelry, including a rare specimen of sakkos to collect the bun.
The lobby of the museum is chosen especially in summer for performances of theatrical comedies or for the memorial “Rosa Balistreri”, a competition of popular songs and poems dedicated to the folk singer.
