National Archaeological Museum of Crotone

Founded in 1968, it is located on Risorgimento Street in the heart of the city’s historic center. The two-story building contains all the most significant artifacts from the archaeological areas of the entire Croton area. In particular, very rich archaeological findings come from the Sanctuary of Hera Lacinia located in Capo Colonna.
The Iron Age is well documented with rich grave goods and artifacts from the Crotone provincial area and vases and amphorae distinguished according to provenance: Corinthian, Chalcidian, Attic, and Italiot. A large section is devoted to the so-called “treasure of Hera Lacinia,” a votive room with objects of the highest artistic value, found in the Archaeological Park of Capo Colonna. Such rich heritage includes masterpieces such as the winged sphinx, the gorgon, and the Nuragic boat.

Prominent among these is the splendid Golden Diadem, also known as the “crown of Hera,” consisting of a gold foil band that develops a braided decoration on the inside while on the outside there is a line with leaves and berries supported by intertwined wires. No similar jewelry is currently known to be in the same preserved condition such that the crown’s provenance and destination can be understood, although some scholars speculate that it was the crowning of a simulacrum of the goddess Hera Lacinia.

Other sections document sanctuaries in the area: that of Apollo Aleo at Krimisa (Punta Alice in Cirò Marina), the Doric temple at Kaulonia, and a cult area at Punta Stilo. In 2007 the museum’s holdings were enriched by another very valuable artifact from a clandestine excavation in Strongoli that ended up in 1992 at the Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California. This is an askos, a 5th-century bronze unguentarium depicting a mermaid with a bird’s body and a woman’s head.