MegaMuseo

The MegaMuseo, also known as the Area Megalitica di Saint-Martin-de-Corléans, is a contemporary archaeological museum and covered megalithic site located in the Saint-Martin-de-Corléans district of Aosta, in Italy's Aosta Valley. Established as a museum in 2016 and renamed MegaMuseo in February 2025, it encloses what is described as the largest covered megalithic area in Europe, covering approximately 10,000 square metres. The site is considered of major importance for the study of European prehistory and protohistory, documenting over 6,000 years of human activity from the Late Neolithic through the Middle Ages. Its significance lies in the exceptional preservation of ritual and funerary monuments, including aligned wooden post holes, anthropomorphic steles, dolmen tombs, and cist burials, all maintained in their original location beneath a modern architectural envelope.

The site was discovered by accident in 1969 during construction work for residential condominiums, when mechanical excavators struck the top of a decorated stone stele at a depth of about six metres below the present urban level. Archaeologists Franco Mezzena and Rosanna Mollo Mezzena of the regional Soprintendenza identified the find, leading to immediate suspension of building work and acquisition of the land by the Aosta Valley Regional Government. Systematic excavations followed for over twenty years, with further investigation campaigns in 2001 and between 2006 and 2008, continuing to the present with micro-excavation surveys. Franco Mezzena, who had identified the first evidence in 1969, directed these excavations and also coordinated wider protohistoric research throughout the Aosta Valley. The museum project began in 2007, with the first section covering the Neolithic to Early Bronze Age inaugurated on 24 June 2016. The installation was renewed in the 2020s, and the archaeological park and museum reopened to the public in November 2023. In February 2025, the institution assumed the name MegaMuseo.

The archaeological record at Saint-Martin-de-Corléans spans from the final centuries of the 5th millennium BCE to the Middle Ages, encompassing the Neolithic, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman period, Late Antiquity, and Early Middle Ages. The earliest phase, beginning around 3000 to 2750 BCE, comprised an open-air sanctuary characterised by ritual plough furrows, aligned wooden post holes oriented toward a local rock outcrop, and anthropomorphic stone steles. These practices were connected to agricultural cults and worship of the living. In the second phase, from 2750 to 2400 BCE, an extensive ploughing ritual produced furrows parallel to the post alignments, accompanied by the deposition of human teeth treated like seeds, the erection of forty statue-menhirs, and the addition of stone platforms and at least seven ritual pits. The third phase, between 2400 and 2100 BCE, saw the construction of megalithic funerary monuments including a dolmen with lateral entrance and a 15-metre triangular stone platform, an allée couverte, and a dolmen with circular enclosure, all built without covering mounds. Smaller graves followed in the fourth phase, from 2100 to 1900 BCE, after which the site was abandoned for about 700 years before limited reuse between 1200 and 800 BCE. The area later saw Roman settlement and funerary activity, and eventually the medieval church of Saint-Martin-de-Corléans, first documented in 1176.

The most striking features of the site are the anthropomorphic steles, tall carved stone figures representing human or mythical forms that constitute the first megalithic manifestation at Saint-Martin-de-Corléans. Some forty statue-menhirs were erected during the second phase, with varying orientations, some aligned with the post rows and others at right angles. These steles were later reused in the construction of megalithic tombs when the site assumed funerary functions around 2000 BCE. Tomb II, a dolmen measuring 2.5 by 2.2 metres with a lateral entrance and a 15-metre triangular stone platform, is particularly notable for its resemblance to the dolmen M XII at Petit-Chasseur in Switzerland. The platform partially overlies an older cist tomb. The allée couverte of Tomb V and the circular-enclosure dolmen of Tomb IV represent other significant megalithic typologies present at the site. Late Neolithic skeletal remains, arrowheads, ceramic fragments, and jewellery items from the 3rd millennium BCE confirm the chronological placement of the steles, with depicted weapons including Remedello-type daggers with triangular blades, bows with strings and arrows, and double-spiral pendants of the Stallhof type.

The museum complex was initially designed by architect Vittorio Valletti in the late 1980s and was constructed in the early 2000s over the archaeological area. The building extends across four levels and covers 9,820 square metres, divided into two sections north and south of Corso Saint-Martin-de-Corléans, connected by a steel bridge with a collaborating slab deck that restores the road connection. The excavated area lies six metres below street level, while the building rises approximately seven metres above the pedestrian plaza. Notable architectural features include a 46.5-metre central nave spanned by three-metre steel lattice trusses without intermediate supports, and a horizontal lantern, a steel and glass parallelepiped that provides visual connection between the north and south zones of the excavation. The structure's modern, angular forms with reflective surfaces have been compared to Paris's Pompidou Centre, creating what the institution describes as a bridge between sky and earth that maintains a continuous visual dialogue between the archaeological site and its contemporary enclosure.

The MegaMuseo is located at Corso Saint-Martin-de-Corléans 258 in Aosta, in the western part of the city. It is owned and managed by the Aosta Valley Regional Government. The museum is open from 10:00 to 18:00, closed on Mondays as well as on 25 December and 1 January, with seasonal variations possible. Admission is structured with full tickets at 7 euros, reduced tickets at 5 euros for groups and specific agreements, and 3 euros for visitors aged 19 to 25; entry is free for those under 18, disabled visitors with companions, and holders of certain museum subscriptions, including the Aosta Archeologica cumulative ticket. The site is accessible and barrier-free, with disabled parking spaces available 100 metres away. Visitors arriving by car from the A5 motorway can use either the Aosta Est or Aosta Ovest exits, following SS26 toward Courmayeur or Aosta respectively. Public transport users can take bus lines 3 or 8 to the Area Megalitica stop. The museum offers self-guided visits and accompanied tours at 11:00 and 15:30, with audio guides available in Italian, French, and English. In 2019, the MegaMuseo became the first Italian site to join the European Route of Megalithic Culture, a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe.