The National Archaeological Museum
    The first collections originated with finds from excavations carried out in Cividale by Canon Count Michele della Torre Valsassina between 1817 and 1826, after he was directed to do so by Emperor Franz I in 1816.
    Having decided in 1886 to establish the museum, in 1889 the Nordis family’s former palazzo in Piazza Duomo was purchased for this purpose.
    In 1990 the museum was moved to its new home in Palazzo dei Provveditori Veneti on the eastern side of Piazza Duomo. The palazzo’s layout is attributed to Andrea Palladio and it was probably built sometime between 1565 and 1596. The inaugural exhibition in the new museum was "The Lombards” which later became a permanent fixture and was enlarged with new finds.
    The museum houses mainly Lombard remains that illustrate this people’s occupation of Forum Iulii. In Italy, the importance of the museum’s Lombard collections is second only to those in the Museum of the Early Middle Ages in Rome which has the finds from the Castel Trosino and Nocera Umbra necropolises. The other material housed in the Cividale museum refers mainly to the early Middle Ages and was found in various localities around the region.
    The present display covers two floors: the lapidary department, divided into Roman, early Middle Ages, Romanesque and Renaissance sections, is on the ground floor. In the Roman section there are some interesting floor mosaics including one dating from the first-second centuries AD depicting a sea god (Natisone deified or Ocean). Also of interest is the series of Latin inscriptions and, in particular, the base of a statue dedicated to Emperor Caracallus.
    The museum’s upper floor houses the Lombard department filling seven rooms, a magnificent collection of Lombard coins recently given to the museum and a group of Roman bronzes from Zuglio Carnico.
    Finds from the necropolises are housed in the Lombard department. In fact, objects buried with their owners are the main source of our knowledge about the lives and lifestyle of the Lombards. The tradition of providing the deceased with funerary equipment was part of burial rites which we do not fully understand and which were very subjective, reflecting a precise vision of the afterlife: according to the view of the time, after death the deceased maintained their social role and kept the family ties enjoyed during their lifetime.
    The deceased were buried in traditional costume with all the metallic accessories needed for their apparel, both in female and in male tombs, where weapons were added. Other objects would include more jewellery and a wide range of objects offered by relatives at the time of burial. The Italian tombs belonging to the immigrant generation are easily recognised because they reflect the same burial rites and contain the same objects as tombs in Pannonia.
    One of the most interesting and original aspects of Italian Lombard funerary equipment are the gold crosses that are occasionally found in the tombs of both men and women, adults and minors. These objects were specifically for funerary use and were adopted by the Lombards when they assimilated a typically Mediterranean tradition. The cross was sewn on a veil or shroud placed over the deceased’s face.
    The most important Lombard necropolises in Cividale were discovered outside the town, i.e. outside the town’s late antique walls; when the Lombards came to Cividale they started to bury their dead in places already used for inhumations or in new areas. The Lombard burial areas progress chronologically from the oldest tombs in North-eastern (Cella-San Giovanni necropolis), northern (necropolis of San Mauro) and western areas of the town (Gallo and Santo Stefano necropolis), with later tombs appearing even in the town centre and in the areas to the South-East (Piazza della Resistenza, church of San Pantaleone) and South-West of Cividale (Grupignano).

    The artefacts found at the above sites can be admired in the National Archaeological Museum: a good number of traditional Lombard fibulae (“S”- and stirrup-shaped) which came to Cividale with the first-generation Lombards, and fibulae from later periods, were found in the Cella-San Giovanni necropolis which was excavated twice, in 1821-22 and in 1916. There are also some outstanding pieces of necklaces made of Barbaric imitation-Byzantine coins.
    Particularly noteworthy are the male and female funerary treasures with objects dating from the immigration period with characteristic weapons and jewellery, found in the Gallo necropolis which came to light between 1949 and 1951.
    This fascinating display also includes a series of rich funerary equipment found in the Santo Stefano necropolis (excavated in the Sixties and in 1987-88), dating from the end of the sixth to the beginning of the seventh century, with numerous gold crosses, golden brocades from the deceased’s clothing, gold and damascened-iron belt decorations, bronze and glass vessels, game counters, as well as weapons and a superb, absolutely unique stirrup-shaped fibula.
    Last, but not least, is the funerary equipment from the tomb called “of Duke Gisulf” which is displayed in a separate room. This burial site, containing a sarcophagus, was discovered quite by chance in 1874 in Piazza Paolo Diacono and is one of the richest tombs found in Cividale. In particular, gold embroidery and a signet ring indicate the importance and high social status of the warrior buried in this tomb. The funerary equipment dates to just beyond the first half of the seventh century therefore casting doubt on the identity of the high-ranking Lombard within.

The Lombard Temple
    The oratory of Santa Maria in Valle is one of the most complex monuments of the western early Middle Ages.
    The western wall of this small rectangular building still has some of its original frescoes and stuccoes.
    Six high-relief female statues flank the central window above a remarkable stucco arch with a grape vine motif. The statues are thought to have been made by Byzantine craftsmen who worked in the Syria-Palestine region and are dated around 760 AD, the original frescoes date from the same period and bear similarities to those found in the churches of Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome and San Salvatore in Brescia.

The Christian Museum
    The museum is located in a room off the third bay of the cathedral’s right nave. It houses two masterpieces of early Middle Ages sculpture in Italy, the Baptistery of Callisto and the Altar of Ratchis.
    The baptistery was made by order of Patriarch Callisto (730-756) for the church of St John the Baptist near the cathedral’s parvis; after many vicissitudes it can now be seen in the manner in which it was reassembled in 1946. It consists of an octagonal font with steps, surrounded by a parapet which includes two bas-relief panels: the panel of St Paolino and the pluteus of Patriarch Sigvald (756-786), Callisto’s successor. Eight slender columns are arranged around the top of the basin and support the tegurium, divided into arches and decorated with bas-reliefs depicting Christian symbols and bearing inscriptions dedicated to Callisto.
    The Ratchis altar was donated to the church of San Giovanni in Cividale by Duke Ratchis, it was later moved to St John the Baptist’s baptistery and then to the church of San Martino. Bas-reliefs on three sides depict Christ in Glory, the Adoration of the Magi and the Visitation. The top bears an dedicatory inscription with Duke Ratchis’ name thereby dating the monument between 739 and 744.