Museo Archeologico di Giardini Naxos

The Museo Archeologico di Giardini Naxos exhibits artifacts from the ancient Greek colony of Naxos, including pottery, sculptures, and everyday items.

Planning your visit

Naxos was the first Greek colony in Sicily, founded in 734 BC by settlers from Chalcis and Naxos — the beachhead from which Greek settlement of the island proceeded, and which gave Sicily the Hellenic character that later produced Syracuse and Agrigento. The colony was destroyed by Dionysius of Syracuse in 403 BC and never rebuilt, which is why the archaeological site survives largely undisturbed beneath what is now a beach resort.

The museum, in a nineteenth-century Bourbon fort on the headland, displays what has been excavated: pottery, terracotta figurines, architectural fragments, coins, amphorae and everyday objects, along with material from underwater recovery in the bay. It is small and well presented, and the ticket covers the adjacent archaeological park where the city walls, street grid and sanctuary foundations can be walked in a setting of lemon and olive trees beside the sea.

Giardini Naxos sits below Taormina, whose Greek theatre draws far more visitors — this site is quiet by comparison and considerably older.

Allow ninety minutes for museum and park. Bookable options include tickets combining the archaeological park and museum with parking and local produce. Current availability is shown below.