Saint-Martin-de-Corléans Museum Opens in Aosta After Delays

The Saint-Martin-de-Corléans museum in Aosta, Italy, has opened after a troubled gestation. Covering 3,200 square meters of exhibition space (10,000 including the megalithic area), the museum is mostly underground, six meters below street level, allowing continuous visual dialogue with the archaeological site. Promoted by the Regione Valle d'Aosta and designed by a team led by Vittorio Francesco Valletti, the project began in 2006 with a budget of €12 million, but costs nearly quadrupled and completion was delayed from 2011 to 2016. The site contains remains from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, including ritual plough marks from the Copper Age, anthropomorphic stelae, a large dolmen, and alignments of pits and posts. Artifacts previously held at the Museo Archeologico Regionale, such as glass and ceramic objects and anthropomorphic slabs, have been relocated to the new museum. The museum faced long controversies over design choices and respect for existing artifacts.