Museo del Mare

Polo museale del Mare: seafaring tradition of San Benedetto del Tronto

The Polo Museale del Mare di San Benedetto del Tronto is located within the current premises of the wholesale fish market at the North Pier in San Benedetto del Tronto. It includes the Antiquarium Truentinum, the Museo delle Anfore, the Museo Ittico 'Augusto Capriotti' and the Museo della Civiltà Marinara delle Marche. Also part of this museum is the Pinacoteca del Mare in Palazzo Piacentini, in the city's 'Paese Alto'.

Maritime Civilisation Museum of the Marche: the maritime civilisation exhibition is rich in images, old maps, seafaring tools and scale reproductions of typical Mediterranean vessels. A small slice of past daily life in a seaside town like San Benedetto del Tronto.

Museo delle Anfore (Amphorae Museum): contains many of the amphorae recovered by San Benedetto fishing boats during the last century. On the ground, a floor depicts Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, displaying some of the most common amphora types, such as the Dressel 6A type amphora, typical of the Adriatic Sea. In the other rooms, there is no lack of references to the oil and wine trade between the Greeks and Picenes, right up to the large partial reconstruction of a typical Roman transport ship. The Romans, too, traded extensively in the Adriatic Sea, using amphorae mainly to transport a fish sauce called garum.

Fisheries Museum:  contains a large collection of marine flora and fauna from not only the Adriatic but from all the seas of the world. The original heart of this collection is owed to Professor Augusto Capriotti (1920-1970), internationally renowned microbiology researcher.

Antiquarium Truentinum: houses a number of archaeological finds from the ancient Castrum Truentinum, from the area between the Tesino river, the Tronto river and the territories of Monteprandone, Acquaviva Picena and Ripatransone. The finds range from the Stone Age to the Picenian period to Roman rule. Of great value is the 'Guidi Collection', a series of Bronze Age axes found in the early 20th century in Acquaviva Picena on the property of Marquis Antonio Guidi, mayor of San Benedetto del Tronto between 1911 and 1919.

MAM (Museo d'Arte sul Mare): a permanent open-air museum located along the south quay and housing 145 works of art, of which 135 sculptures and 10 large murals.

The Picture Gallery of the Sea: set up since 2009 on the ground floor of Palazzo Bice Piacentini in the 'upper town', exhibits works by artists Alfred Chatelain, Adolfo de Carolis, Armando Marchegiani and Angelo Landi. The building also houses the Municipal Historical Archives, the study of poetess Bice Piacentini, and in the basement, a tunnel from Roman times and the Poetry Room.