When in Rome… a visit to the Centrale Montemartini

During a recent trip to Rome, I paid a long overdue visit to the Centrale Montemartini, an annexe of the Capitoline Museums located on the Via Ostiense just beyond Porta San Paolo.

Centrale Montemartini was Rome’s first electrical power station when it opened in 1912, and was later converted into a museum of ancient Roman art in the late 1990s. Like the Tate Modern in London, Centrale Montemartini places art in an industrial setting but, unlike the Tate, the imposing machinery has not been moved out. The engines’ grey mass provides a stark contrast to the white marble and offers a unique backdrop for classical art.

Centrale Montemartini has a collection of about four hundred sculptures, reliefs and mosaics dating from the Republican to the late Imperial era. The works of art, exhibited in chronological order, are part of an outstanding collection of classical sculptures from the excavations carried out in Rome between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The masterpieces were moved here during the reorganisation of the Capitoline Museums in 1997 to create space in the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the Museo Nuovo. The Montemartini power plant’s outstanding space made it possible to display monumental sculptures and reconstructions of architectural structures, such as the pediement of the Temple of Apollo Sosianus and the huge mosaic of hunting scenes from Santa Bibiana.

The museum is divided into four areas. The atrium on the ground floor has information panels that illustrate the history of the building. They also examine the characteristics of the main machines used inside the plant.

The next room is the Column Room which displays a rich collection from Republican era. Exhibited here are architectural decorations, a group of sculptures in Peperino tufa (a grey volcanic stone from the Albani Hills), beautiful mosaics with seascape and a series of portraits dating to the 1st century BC.

Portrait of Marcus Vispanius Agrippa, from the excavation sites on the Via del Mare

Portrait of Augustus, 27-20 BC, from the excavation sites on the Via del Mare

Portrait of a political personality, this portrait can be indenfied as Mark Antony, from the oration area of the Roman Forum

On the second floor, the Engine Room is the largest and most impressive room. Here, a series of exquisite marble statues and rare Greek originals are arranged around two huge diesel engines and a steam turbine.

Statue of the so-called Athena of Castro Pretorio, Hellenistic statue (mid 3rd century BC) based on 6th century BC models, from the Via Mentena Centrale Montemartini, Rome

Statue of bearded Dionysus, copy after Greek original of the 2nd half of 4th century BC Centrale Montemartini, Rome

Statuette of Asklepios, small-scale copy after a 5th century BC original attributed to Phidias or Alkamenes, from the Via S. Maria dei Monti Centrale Montemartini, Rome

Discophoros (disk-bearer), Roman copy of a Greek original of the late Classical period attributed to Naukydes of Argos Centrale Montemartini, Rome

The Engine Room also houses two sculptures of exceptional artistic quality that were found in 1885 on the Caelian Hill during excavations. The two fragmented pieces were found inside a late-antique wall where they were reused as material construction. The restorers of the 19th century reassembled the two statues. The first one is a statue in basanite of Agrippina the Younger represented in the act of praying. The head is a moulded copy of the statue on display in the Ny Carsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen (see image here). The second statue, made in dark grey marble (bigio antico), is known as the Victory of the Symmachi (an aristocratic family of the late Roman Empire). It is considered to be a work dating to the late Republican, most probably representing a dancing woman like the one from Perge in the Antalya Museum (see image here).

Basanite statue of Agrippina the Younger depicted as a priestess, discoverd during the escavations in 1885 of the military hospital that was build over the villa Casali, 1st century AD Centrale Montemartini, Romr

Statue in made in dark grey marble (bigio antico) known as the Victory of the Symmachi, probably representing a dancing woman Centrale Montemartini, Rome

A whole gallery of Imperial portraits as well as splendid Roman copies of Greek originals come from a private residence of the 1st century AD and restored in the 2nd and 3rd century AD. The house was brought to light during excavations for the creation of the Via dei Fori Imperiali.

Portrait of Lucilla, daughter of Marcus Aurelius and Faustia, portrayed after her marriage with Lucius Verus and the birth of her first son, 165-166 AD Centrale Montemartini, Rome

Head of Silvanus crowned with pine Centrale Montemartini, Rome

Head of Apollo crowned with a laurel wreath, Roman copy after a Hellenistic work conceived as a statuary group with the Muses Centrale Montemartini, Rome

Occupying the other end of the room is a reconstruction of the pediment of the Temple of Apollo Sosiano, a temple dedicated to Apollo in the Campus Martius, next to the Theatre of Marcellus. The marble sculptures are rare Greek originals (dated to c. 450 – 425 BC), brought to Rome in the Augustan period to decorate the temple whose remains are still visible today (see images here). The temple’s main pediment was decorated with sculptures narrating the battle between the Greeks and the Amazon (Amazonomachy) in which the figures of Herakles, Theseus, Athena and Nike take centre stage.

The cella’s interior walls were decorated with a frieze representing a triumphal procession interpreted as the representation of Octavian’s triple triumph held in 29 BC and celebrating the Dalmatians wars, the Battle of Actium and the victory over Egypt.

The Boiler Room, named after the huge steam boiler dominating the room, is home to a number of beautiful statues and decorative sculptures that once adorned the gardens of sumptuous imperial residences (Horti Sallustiani, Horti Liciniani, Horti Lamiani, Horti Caesaris). Funerary monuments from the Ostiense Necropolis are also on display in this room.

Among the highlights here are a sculpture group depicting a Satyr and a Nymph, a head of Priapus, a wounded Niobid, a statue of a seated girl and another one of the muse Polyhymnia as well as an exquisite statue in red marble of Marsyas and a large mosaic of a hunting scene.

Head of Priapus, refined Augustan version of archaic models dating back to the late 6th century BC, from the Horti Lamiani Centrale Montemartini, Rome

Group with Satyr and a Nymph, Roman copy after work of the Pergamene school dating back to the mid-2nd century BC Centrale Montemartini, Rome

Seated girl, Roman copy of the Hadrianic period after a Greek original of the school of Lysippos or a Roman creation, from the Horti Liciniani Centrale Montemartini, Rome

2nd c. AD statue in red marble of Marsyas, a satyr who dared challenge Apollo to a music contest , found at the Villa Vignacce in southeastern Rome during 2009 excavations carried by the American Institute for Roman Culture Centrale Montemartini, Rome

Statue of a Muse (Polyhymnia?), Found in via Terni inside an ancient underground passage in the area of the Horti Variani, 2nd century BC Centrale Montemartini, Rome

Centrale Montemartini is definitely one of Rome’s most striking exhibition spaces. It offers a unique museum experience and it is often so empty that you will likely have the place to yourself.

The museum is located on the Via Ostiense, 106. Take the Metro to Garbatella, cross over the tracks and walk through a parking to the Via Ostiense. You will see the museum across the Via on your left. You can also walk from the Pyramid Metro Station down the Via Ostiense.

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Opening hours:
Tuesday-Sunday: 9.00 – 19.00;
24 and 31 December: 9.00 – 14.00;
Last admission 1/2 hour before closing time.

Regular Fees:
Adults € 7,50
Concessions € 6,50
Roman Citizens only (by showing a valid ID):
Adults € 6,50
Concessions € 5,50

Capitolini Card (Capitoline Museums + Centrale Montemartini – valid 7 days): 
Adults € 16,00
Concessions € 14,00
Roman Citizens only (by showing a valid ID): 
Adults € 15,00
Concessions € 13,00

Website: http://en.centralemontemartini.org/