Museo delle Navi Romane: Museum of Caligula’s Ships at Lake Nemi
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Classical
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical
- Civilizations
- Roman
- Site type
- Museum
On this page13 sections
History
Museo delle Navi Romane is an archaeological museum in Italy, at Nemi on the shore of Lake Nemi, built to house two enormous Roman ships associated with Emperor Caligula, who ruled from AD 37 to 41. The museum opened in 1936 after a long sequence of recovery attempts, and its history is closely tied to the archaeological investigation, raising, and later destruction of the vessels.
The Roman ships and their burial
The existence of the ships was inferred from objects recovered from the lake because no surviving ancient Roman author mentions them. Lead water pipes bearing stamped ownership information connected the vessels with Caligula. They were probably sunk after his death in accordance with damnatio memoriae, a Roman practice of condemning a dead person’s memory by removing or destroying references to him and, in some cases, associated monuments or objects.
Medieval fishermen periodically brought archaeological material out of Lake Nemi, while later fishermen repeatedly looted the wrecks. The vessels lay partly covered by mud, which helped preserve their wooden components. Their position and size made recovery exceptionally difficult, and attempts continued for centuries.
Early recovery attempts
Cardinal Prospero Colonna, the fifteenth-century lord of Nemi, initiated the first recorded recovery attempt in 1446. He entrusted the work to Leon Battista Alberti. Genoese divers explored the nearer ship, and a floating platform with hooked ropes was used in an effort to drag it ashore. The attempt failed and tore away part of the vessel, causing serious damage.
Francesco De Marchi directed a second attempt in 1535. On 15 July, he personally descended in a diving bell designed by Étienne Guillery. De Marchi examined the nearer and shallower ship, estimated it to be about 64 metres long and 20 metres wide, and observed that its timber remained well preserved after nearly 2,000 years underwater. Straps and ropes were used repeatedly, but none of the efforts succeeded in raising the hull.
A third attempt began in September 1827 under Annesio Fusconi. An enlarged diving bell carried eight divers and was lowered from a floating platform operated by four winches. The divers recovered little material, while the ropes used to lift the hull broke repeatedly.
Investigations and the twentieth-century recovery
An operation commissioned by the Orsini family with state assistance began on 3 October 1895. A professional diver examined the nearer vessel and recovered a rudder ring, feline-head ornaments, spherical and cylindrical rollers, hinges, bronze fittings, lead pipes, gilded copper roof tiles, bricks, mosaic fragments decorated with glass paste, copper sheets, and other materials. The second ship was located on 18 November, and additional objects were brought up. The government acquired much of this material for the Museo Nazionale Romano.
To limit further private looting, Minister of Public Instruction Guido Baccelli sought the assistance of Admiral Enrico Morin, the Minister of the Navy. Lieutenant Colonel Vittorio Malfatti and an expert diver established that the nearer ship lay about 50 metres from the shore, on its left side at a depth of 5 to 12 metres. The second vessel lay about 200 metres farther away, also on its left side, at approximately 15 to 20 metres below the surface.
In 1926, a study commission chaired by Senator Corrado Ricci examined the recovery project and approved Malfatti’s proposal to lower the lake until the ships emerged. Benito Mussolini announced the decision on 9 April 1927. The operation used Lake Nemi’s ancient emissary, an underground tunnel of Etruscan-period construction that had been used in Roman times to carry water toward the sea and protect the Sanctuary of Diana from flooding.
Augusto Anzil and Mafaldo Corese surveyed the entire tunnel. Repairs were completed in September 1928, the drainage system was tested on 1 October, and the pumping plant began operating on 20 October. The upper structures of the first ship emerged on 28 March 1929. Both vessels were then brought ashore and placed in the purpose-built museum.
Destruction and reinstallation
The museum officially opened in 1936 as an archaeological museum and became part of the regional museum administration of the Italian Ministry of Culture. During the night of 31 May to 1 June 1944, Allied aircraft bombarded a nearby anti-aircraft battery of four Nazi guns. A fire afterward destroyed both ships and the material still held in the museum.
Objects that had previously been transferred to the Museo Nazionale Romano survived. Museum custodians initially attributed the fire to Nazi personnel, but later studies assigned responsibility to the bombardment itself. Nazi forces abandoned their position on 2 June, and American troops arrived two days later. The museum was transformed and reinstalled during the twentieth century, with its present interpretation combining surviving material, scale models of the ships, and finds connected with the Sanctuary of Diana.
Remains
The museum stands directly on the shore of Lake Nemi and was designed specifically for the recovered vessels. Its two concrete hangars were sized for ships approximately 80 metres long. Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo designed the building with extensive glazed surfaces and a usable roof terrace. Set above the lakeshore, the terrace overlooks the lake. The building has been characterized as an exceptionally rare purpose-built structure whose form was determined by the dimensions and requirements of its contents, and it has also been described as the first building of its kind worldwide.
Museum displays and archaeological material
Scale models of the ships
One museum wing displays scale models of the two ships, positioned one behind the other. Each model is built at a scale of 1:5. Naval engineers prepared numerous technical drawings during the recovery operation in the 1920s, and those drawings formed the basis for the models. The dimensions used for the hangars reflect later descriptions of the vessels as approximately 80 metres long, while De Marchi’s 1535 examination of the nearer ship produced an estimate of 64 metres in length and 20 metres in width.
Ship fittings and construction materials
The surviving archaeological material includes a rudder ring, feline-head ornaments, spherical and cylindrical rollers, hinges, bronze fittings, lead water pipes, gilded copper roof tiles, bricks of different forms and sizes, mosaic fragments with glass-paste decoration, and copper sheets. The lead pipes were made from rectangular sheets and carried stamped ownership information. Some stamps included the name of a hydraulic freedman and a serial number, helping connect the vessels with Caligula.
Sanctuary finds and the Via Sacra
Later reinstallation added a section of the ancient Via Sacra, a ceremonial sacred road associated with a sanctuary or religious complex. The museum also presents archaeological finds from the Sanctuary of Diana, a consecrated place used for worship and ritual activity on the northern shore of the lake. These materials are displayed alongside surviving objects from the 1944 fire and the ship models.
Lake setting and the ancient emissary
The two underwater positions
The nearer ship lay roughly 50 metres from the shore, on its left side at a depth of 5 to 12 metres. The second ship was approximately 200 metres farther from shore and rested on its left side at about 15 to 20 metres deep. Both were partly covered by mud, a condition that contributed to the preservation of their wooden remains before recovery.
The Etruscan-period tunnel
The ancient emissary associated with Lake Nemi is an underground tunnel extending from the lake toward the sea. Built during the Etruscan period, it served in Roman times as a drainage route. Lowering the lake through this tunnel made the 1920s recovery possible and also reflects the earlier effort to protect the Sanctuary of Diana from flooding.
