National Archaeological Museum of Formia

The museum has been located since 1997, on the ground floor of the southern wing of the Municipal Palace, in the 19th-century rooms known as the "Stalloni dei Borbone."

The collection includes works of a high artistic level that testify to the high level of wealth attained by the city in Roman times, the site of numerous ville d'otium and a major economic center favored by the presence of the port and the Via Appia, the main axis of connection with southern Italy. Many sculptures come from the monumental area of the Forum and can be dated between the end of the first century B.C. and the second century A.D., the city's heyday.

The most important core of the collection consists of the findings that occurred in the 1920s and 1970s in the area of the City Forum (present-day Mattej Square and part of Vitruvius Street).

These are both male and female statues of honorary character, erected by distinguished members of Formian society and imperial family figures found, mainly in the area of the ancient forum. A unique element of this section of the museum are two male toga statues with traces of color, rare evidence that in ancient times statues were often richly painted.

The inner gallery houses a selection with representations of gods and figures traceable to the mythological sphere that probably constituted the furnishings of the wealthy Formian stately homes. Among the works of particular value is the group of Leda with swan dating from the first century AD, found in 1928 inside the cryptoporticus located under Victory Square, a sculpture of the God Mars, unfortunately lacking its head as a result of theft, and a two-faced herma, dated to the second century AD, depicting Apollo, a highly ambiguous deity who lent himself well to the theme of duality.