The Museum of Filicudi is one of the detached sections of Museum of Lipari. It was opened to public in 2003, but unveiled only in 2004. The structure is found in the Port of Filicudi. It is about the traditional Aeolian structure situated of two floors, arising upon the prehistoric village of Capo Graziano. The Museum has been divided into five exposition rooms, four of which situated on the first floor, and one on the ground floor. On the ground floor it is possible to sightsee ethno-anthropological findings, work tools, or those of everyday use. These objects were given to the Museum by the island’s inhabitants themselves who, together with the experts, have perfectly reconstructed the history of these findings, and therefore, of the island, too. Going up to the upper floor and entering the first exposition room, it is possible to read the chronological table of the island’s history, of its morphological changings, the aspects dealing with volcanology, the evolution of the island’s life, and also the relationship between man and environment.

In the second room there are the findings of the first period of the Bronze Age, the historical period, which lasted from the end of the third to the first part of the second millennium B.C., and the medium Bronze Age, the historical period lasted from the 14th till the beginning of the 13th century B.C. These finds were discovered thanks to the excavations of the villages Piano del Porto and Capo Graziano. The history shows that the Aeolian Islands underwent many dominations, or however, were visited by populations of cultures different from those of the typical western culture. The evidence can be found in the objects of pottery made of “African clay bearing little images”. The third room is dedicated to the marine archaeology. It is possible to admire ancient amphora of transport and stumps of anchor. One of the amphora dates back to the Punic period of the 5th century B.C., the others date back to the 4th B.C. , to the Greek-Italic period. Another group of amphora dates back to the 2nd B.C., and coming from the wreck A “Roghi”. The forth and the last room is still in set-up.

The museum of Panarea, a detached section of the Bernabo Brea Museum of Lipari, rises in a small locality composed of two halls belonging to Saint Pietro Church, once used as a storage and as a tank. The finds collocated there were all discovered in Panarea and adjacent isles, and are concerned with both historical and geological island’s evolution. The first hall greets us with an introduction of the geological and volcanologic history by means of illustrative tables and minerals which show the evolution of the wide volcanic complex. In the same room there are finds dating back to the Neolithic and to the Bronze Age, found near the prehistoric village of Punta Milazzese, in Piano Quartara, and in Calcara. In the second room of particular interest are: the funeral sets from the Drautto necropolis; two funeral pieces dating back to the V and the IV B.C., one of which found in Basiluzzo; the Greek-Italic amphora, dating back to the IV-III B.C.; some vases with black lacquering, found in a shipwreck of Dattilo, sank in the IV B.C: ; some amphora dating back to the I B.C., found in a shipwreck of Alberti, and dulcis in fundo, a piece of anchor.

Paying a ticket to travel through history is possible only thanks to museums. Each museum is a magic place , a crossing of different chronologies, a joint of various sceneries whose fashion consists in the fact that man is the main character, in his every form and variation. The millenary traces of the man are kept in museums, the precious treasures permitting to know the geniality, the creativity, and the great beauty which crosses the whole man’s history, from the pre-history till nowadays. On the amazing island of Salina , in Santa Marina, you can admire the ruins of the Roman thermae, and some of the traces of the Bronze Age. The Civic Museum is not constituted of only one building; it is about three different buildings; each of them keeping different aspects of the history of Salina. The finds dating back to the Bronze Age of Portella , and the ruins of the Roman thermae are situated in Archaeological Museum. The Ethno-Anthropological Museum is situated in the house dating back to the first half of the 19th century. In the rooms of this has a typical background of that period is re-created.

The 19th century is an important historical period for more points of view, and particularly for the migration waves. They used to emigrate for various motivations, and the destination chosen by the emigrants mostly were overseas; just think about millions of emigrants in Australia and in America. The Emigration Museum of Malfa has a collection of documents, photos, and films, showing the causes of the migration phenomenon of the Aeolians’ inhabits at the end of the 19th century. Yellowed cloths, yellowed registers’ pages, where you can still read the names of the emigrants, and the photos of massive departures, tell us a sad page of the story, which unfortunately, is still today repeated: to leave your motherhood for searching luck in another place, which sometimes is only imaginary.

• Address: via del Castello – Lipari (Messina)
• Timetable: every day h. 9.00-13.00/15.00-18.00 except for holiday afternoons
• Opening: winter period on reservation.
• Opening the Detached Section of Panarea:
• Summer period: every day h.9.30-13.30/15.00-18.00 winter period on reservation.
• A ticket: Full prize € 6,00; Reduced: € 3,00.

The museum complex is situated upon the Neolithic rock of the “ Castello” of Lipari, a kind of a natural fortress, used by populations settled down on the island to defend themselves from attacks and invasions. The museum is the evidence of all the cultures and populations which have settled the territory. It is possible to admire the Bronze Era huts, on the overlapped levels, and exactly four of them; some of the Greek-Roman buildings and the urban plant of the 2nd B.C. The museum of Lipari, one of the principal historical and cultural attractions of the island, is divided into six large areas, which are: the pre-historic section, the epigraphic section, the classic section, the section of the minor islands, the volcanologic section, and the paleontological section.

Luigi Bernabò Brea, the supervisor of the eastern Sicily, and Madeline Cavalier, founded the Regional Archeological Museum round the fifties of the 20th century. The Museum “Luigi Bernabò Brea” had various works of amplification, because of the rapid increase of the collections. The building’s arrangement highlights, thanks to the reconstruction of wide excavations’ sections, and stratigraphic, the connections of the finds with the historical period of reference. Doing so, it provides an accurate historical continuity, describing the various dominations which succeeded.

The pre-historical section

The pre-historical section is placed inside the bishop’s palace, going back to the 18th century, built upon the ruins of the Norman monastery. On the first floor, from the I to the VI hall, there are finds dating back to the initial phase of the Middle Neolithic Age. The route goes on with the exposition of the finds, belonging to the last Neolithic period, and to the populations which followed till the Bronze Age. The route of this section finishes on the ground floor where the finds, dating back to the Lipàra foundation (580/576 B.C) are kept. These finds present historic and religious suggestion, concerning the objects used for the rituals and votive offers to the god Aeolus; found in a well and dating back to the VI-V B.C.

The epigraphic section

From the X hall of the pre-historic section you arrive to the epigraphic pavilion where funeral artefacts in lava stone , of III-I B.C., and deriving from the excavations of the Greek-Roman Diana’s necropolis, are kept.

The classic section

The classic section represents the work of the greatest importance in the intervention program of the museum’s buildings. The overlook on the garden, on the Castle’s walls, and on the sea, is really charming, and offers to the tourist the possibility to establish the visual contact with the extraordinary natural context where the museum is set. The building dedicated to the classic period is of the Fascist Epoch. The finds, coming from the excavations of Milazzo are exposed in the halls XVI-XVIII; the last one is dedicated to the archaic Greek necropolis of Milazzo. It’s interesting to notice that the island of Lipari, on the archaeological level, keeps some of the most important finds of the whole central-western Mediterranean basin in the Luigi Bernabò Brea Museum. While visiting the classic pavilion, it is possible to admire great vases, better known as Hydriae, which once kept ashes of the cremated corpses. You can admire the outfits of circa 3000 tombs, the Greek tragedy and comedy masks, amphorae, pyxides and other manufactures dating back to the Byzantine Epoch, and also, necklaces of gold, precious and a huge collection of the IV B.C. Greek coins, representing Hephaestus and the dolphins.

The minor islands section

The section of the minor islands, collocated in the building near the bishop’s palace, keeps the finds of the Neolithic and Bronze Era, which were found on the near islands of Salina, Filicudi, Panarea, and Stromboli. This section is dedicated to Alfred Ritmann. The visitor is explained the geomorphological aspects of the Aeolian Archipelago, to understand the various aspects of human settings which followed in the course of the centuries. While visiting the three floors, it is possible to learn something about the volcanic activities, industrial archaeology, general volcanology.

The paleonology quayernary section

This section, settled on the south-western part of the Castle, keeps the fossil finds of the Aeolian Islands. These finds are a singular evidence of the life forms pre-existing the Man’s appearance.