The Archeological Museum, Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli is located on the first three floors of a 15th century building called Palazzo del Podestà and contains Etruscan findings from Alta Valdelsa, in particular from Colle di Val d’Elsa and Monteriggioni. The first part of the Museum was formed in the 1970s when some members of the “Gruppo Archeologico Colligiano” Archeological Association took part in negotiations between the municipal administration and Countess Terrosi, the owner of one of the most important collections in the area, which she intended to sell. “Collezione Terrosi” as formed between the 19th and 20th centuries during the excavations in the family estates of Piana del Casone. The municipal administration bought many artefacts from her, including the highly valuable findings from the Calisna Sepu family hypogeum discovered at the end of 19th century and studied by the archaeologist Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli in the 1920s.
Since then the Archeological Museum has become larger and larger with new collections brought by the members of “Gruppo Archeologico Colligiano” who have been preserving and safekeeping the historical/archaeological legacy of this area for more than thirty years. Nowadays it is one of the most important museums in the Sienese area, boasting valuable tomb collections, findings and reconstructions, e.g. the reconstruction of an Etruscan kiln that dates back to the third century B.C. discovered in Quartaia (near Colle di Val d’Elsa) and various findings from the greatest Etruscan necropolis in the area, Le Ville and Dometaia.
