Here we have an emblematic picture of the Centrale Montemartini Museum, one of the strangest museum of Rome and in the world. So let's come with me discovering a place that you have to see if you visit the Eternal City. A local tour guide like me must share this amazing museum, a place that is able to underline how Rome is a city full of opportunities.

Upon entering inside you will immediately notice something special: a number of modern machines that are interspersed with classical works of art, especially statues, mosaics and pediments. All of these unique pieces, dating back to a period even before the Roman Empire (as some of the friezes of the temple of Apollo Sosiano, which can be dated around the V century b.C.) are immersed in a space that is alienating as it may be one of the first thermoelectric power plant station of Rome. The name derives from the Technology Assessor Montemartini, the politician who opened the complex building near the river to convey the water that was necessary to the production of electrical energy. We are at the 1912. This central unit was to replace the not-so-obsolete Gasometer, that is visible from here, which is another industrial and modern point of reference of the city! Instead of exploiting the gas, the powerful Diesel engines of the company Tosi could provide more electricity with a lower consumption of energy and, moreover, with greater safety for workers and the city.

Since the 1997 the Centrale Montemartini Museum has been totally cleaned up and used as a permanent exhibition of part of the great archaeological treasures coming from the Capitoline Museums. A sort of branch of the history of Rome, which sees works such as the Togato Barberini or many mosaics also sannitic (IV and III century b.C.). Moreover, in this continuous context, we have a number of roman sarcophagi and other works of art, marble sculptures of the roman age. But we have also a modern train used by pope Pius IX in the mid of the XIX century (to discover more click here). Therefore once again, a continuous dialogue between our past and the modern era and the industrial. In short, probably the best example of the successful reconversion of the museum, starting from the industry, that you have ever seen!