Gregorian Egyptian Museum

Egypt reached Rome through objects as well as stories. In the Gregorian Egyptian Museum, you will encounter material from ancient Egypt alongside works brought to Italy by Roman rulers and Egyptian-inspired sculpture made for Roman settings. That relationship is one of the collection’s main threads. Pope Gregory XVI founded the museum in 1839. Its rooms occupy former papal living and retreat spaces in the Belvedere Palace. The first curator, Luigi Ungarelli, helped create a display with Egyptian-inspired decoration. Even the room around an object can belong to a much later idea of Egypt. Choose a theme from the room labels. Room I concentrates on inscriptions, while Room II turns to funerary customs. Room III brings together material connected with the Egyptian setting at Hadrian’s Villa near Tivoli. The final rooms broaden the visit toward the ancient Near East, including Assyrian palace reliefs and inscriptions in Room IX. You can compare the objects’ uses before trying to absorb the whole collection.