Archaeological Park and Antiquarium

The Archaeological Park of Castelseprio, which also includes the Antiquarium, is state property belonging to the Ministry of Culture, destined for public use. A part is property of Varese Provincial Authority with whom an agreement for its use, still operative, was signed in 1994.
The area is located in extra-urban territory; it occupies an area of approximately 130,000 m2, of which about 55,000 m² is open to the public, on a plateau overlooking the middle Olona valley.

The Castrum, destroyed in the 13th century and subsequently abandoned, has conserved its fundamental features. The imposing defensive wall and San Giovanni Evangelista religious complex, with a church and octagonal baptistery, were restructured by the Lombards in the 7th century;  aristocrats were buried inside and externally. In the Lombard era the area was the seat of a Gastald, an administrator of the Lombard king’s possessions who promoted the construction of prestigious buildings such as the church of Santa Maria foris portas and the monastery of Torba – which together constitute the Torba monumental complex, an extension of the fortified site of Castelseprio. A significant example of a power centre established in a rural area, the settlement is delimited by walls that extend up to Torba, in the flat Olona valley bottom. The tower was built between the 5th and 6th centuries and is the only remaining evidence of the Late Roman empire, when the complex was a military garrison.

Inside the Castelseprio Archaeological Park, the Antiquarium museum, housed in the former Franciscan convent of San Giovanni, was inaugurated in 2009. With a modern and didactic approach, it displays to visitors the most significant finds found during the (still ongoing) archaeological excavations in ancient Castelseprio, recounting the site’s history from the first prehistoric traces to the last monastic presence in the Late Medieval period.