Ground floor

Desenzano and it's territory: on the ground floor, there is a teaching route that leads visitors through human history in Desenzano area, from Paleolithic to Early Middle Ages. The materials on display come from both the first private collections that formed the original core of the museum’s assets and from the surface collections of archaeological groups operating in the area, as well as from the various archaeological excavations that have affected and are affecting the area.

The Polada daggerThe exhibition on the ground floor, currently being redefined, is divided into two rooms dedicated to the territory of Desenzano: the first illustrates the oldest phases, from Palaeolithic to Copper Age, and the history of research; the second deals in particular with events in the Roman and Late Antique periods.

Room 1: ample space is given to the Mosconi collection. Emilio Mosconi's (1897-1983) interest in archaeology began when he was a boy; his research focused on the Lavagnone pile dwelling (Desenzano del Garda-Lonato). Over the years, he collected numerous finds that he also displayed in his house. On his death, his son handed over the collection to the State so that it could be exhibited in Desenzano Museum “to allow citizens to see and study it”, at his father’s request. On the first floor of the museum is a wooden harvest knife with flint blades.

Also on display in the room is a single artefact from the very important Polada pile dwelling (Lonato-BS), now destroyed: a decorated dagger blade, found in the second half of the last century. Giovanni Rambotti's collection, formed during the late 19th century and including many artefacts saved by Ranbotti himself during the peat extraction works at the Polada pile dwelling, is in fact kept at the Museo delle Cività in Rome.

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The sarcophagus of Atilia UrbicaRoom 2: currently dedicated to the final stages of the Bronze Age, with findings from the Bronze Age site at Ponte San Marco (BS) and to the Roman and Late Antique periods, with a focus on the villa found in Faustinella at Desenzano.

On display in the cloister is a sarcophagus from the 2nd-3rd century AD dedicated to Atilia Urbica, confirming the presence of important Roman families in the area.

Also in the cloister is a bas-relief depicting a Venetian lion, dating back to the period of the Venetian Republic's rule over Desenzano (from 1426 to the end of the 18th century) and one of the original columns that adorned the cloister itself.