Federico Eusebio Civic Museum of Archaeology and Natural Sciences, Alba

The Federico Eusebio Civic Museum of Archaeology and Natural Sciences is a municipal museum in Alba, province of Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy. It houses combined archaeological and natural history collections that document the human and natural history of Alba and the surrounding Langhe and Roero hills. The institution matters as the principal repository of local heritage, tracing settlement from the Neolithic through the Roman period of Alba Pompeia while also preserving the region's geological, zoological, and botanical record. Its collections are sufficiently extensive that only a fraction can be displayed at any time, with the full holdings available to researchers.

The museum originated in 1897 through the initiative of Federico Eusebio, a local historian and archaeologist, as a small historical and archaeological collection with a single exhibition room. The natural history component was introduced only from 1972, when the museum began to acquire specimens illustrating the natural history of Alba and the surrounding hills. In 1976, the museum relocated to its current site, augmented by finds from recent excavations. A major reorganization in 2000 moved the museum into the historic center, specifically into the nineteenth-century wing of a former convent in the Maddalena complex. This relocation allowed expansion to 21 exhibition rooms.

The archaeological section forms the original and principal core of the museum. It is divided into a prehistoric section, with Neolithic artifacts and finds from excavations in the Alba area, and a Roman section that extensively documents the life and prosperity of ancient Alba Pompeia. The natural sciences section comprises rooms dedicated to geology, zoology, and botany. The collections are so large that only 5 percent of the artifacts can be exhibited at once; the displays are periodically renewed, and the entire collection remains accessible to scholars.

Among the displayed items, the museum preserves a finely carved marble funerary monument from the 1st century AD dedicated to Caius Cornelius Germanus. This Roman epitaph represents a significant example of local sculptural craftsmanship from the imperial period and serves as an important document of the social elite in ancient Alba Pompeia.

The museum occupies the nineteenth-century wing of a former convent within the Maddalena complex in Alba's historic center. This site was adopted during the 2000 reinstallation, providing the expanded space needed for 21 exhibition rooms. The conversion of this former religious building into museum use reflects a common pattern of adaptive reuse for cultural institutions in Italian historic centers.

The museum is located in Alba, a town in the province of Cuneo in Italy's Piedmont region. It operates as a municipal institution under the administration of the Comune di Alba, with official information available through the town's cultural services website. The museum's collections serve both public exhibition and scholarly research functions, with its full holdings available to researchers beyond the rotating displays.