National Museum and Archaeological Park of Locri

You have reached the site of Locri Epizefiri. The modern town is only a few kilometres away, but the rhythm of the landscape changes here. The National Archaeological Park, one of the largest in Calabria, preserves traces scattered across a wide area. To understand them, we need to connect what survives outdoors with the objects and stories held inside the museums.

The National Archaeological Museum opened in 1971 as the Antiquarium of Locri and became a national museum in 1998. Its galleries focus mainly on life in the Greek polis. This is the best place to begin. Pottery, terracottas, inscriptions and finds from the excavations give form to everyday activities, religious practice and the city’s wider relationships.

Outdoors, the polis appears in fragments. The visitor routes pass sections of the city walls, towers and gates. These were not merely defensive structures; they marked the boundary between the city and its territory. Sacred areas such as Marasà and the Thesmophorion reveal how religion was woven into the organisation of space and the life of the community.

In the southern sector, the story continues through the sacred area of Zeus the Thunderer, the Porta Portuense, the House of the Lions and the shrine linked to Aphrodite. It then reaches Centocamere, a residential and craft district. Here, the word polis becomes more tangible: not only temples and institutions, but homes, work, production and neighbours.

The city’s history did not end with the Greek period. The Casino Macrì complex includes a nineteenth-century farmhouse and buildings raised above the remains of private Roman baths. It now houses the museum of Roman Locri, guiding visitors into the Roman and Late Antique phases. Outstanding finds include a marble portrait statue of a man wearing the toga from the forum area, a large basin carved from rare Aleppo breccia and a gold bract depicting the Adoration of the Magi, once part of a seventh-century reliquary.

Together, the museums and outdoor areas prevent us from reducing Locri Epizefiri to a single image. The city changed, expanded, rebuilt itself and gave new meanings to familiar places.

Before you leave, pause and listen to the landscape. The wind, the distance between one area and another, the line of the hills and the direction of the sea all belong to the experience. Ancient Locri is not separate from the modern town. It remains present in its name, its museums, the words of Nossis and the way this territory continues to tell its story.