Museo Archeologico, Florence

Like other collections, the Archaeological Museum has its origins in the collections of the Grand Dukes, both Medici and Forensi, whose works of art were initially, kept in the Uffizi. The museum is divided into three sections: the topographical museum of Etruria, the Etrusco-Helletian-Roman Antiquarium and the Egyptian collection. The collection, which has Etruscan civilization at its heart, was begun by Cosimo the Old (15th Century), but was enlarged particularly by Cosimo I and in the 18th Century by Cardinal Leopold. The Egyptian section was created by Lorena and is mostly made up of archaeological finds which were recovered during a Franco-Tuscan expedition at the beginning of the 19th Century. The Austrians increased the size of the Etruscan collection and it was studied in its entirety by their experts. The museum also contains glass, gems, Greek ceramics and a numismatic collection. In the garden, Etruscan tombs and funeral monuments are reconstructed.