The archaeological Museum of Saint Scholastica is located in the Benedictine monastery, in the port of Bari. On this site the oldest settlement appeared, and now archaeological excavations are underway. Visiting the Museum, you can see the entire history of the ancient city since the Bronze age.
The Benedictine monastery of the Holy Trinity on this site was founded in 1053. Buildings of the monastery, much later periods, have been preserved nowadays, but it has long been defunct. In the 16th century, an Aragonese defensive Bastion was built nearby.
In recent decades, there have been active archaeological excavations. As a result, they made very interesting finds of all periods. Traces of human habitation in the Bronze age have been found, and many of the finds belong to the era of early Greece.
Inside the Museum, the masonry of the very first Church of St. John and Paul in 1053 was found and cleared. The archaeological route begins at the Aragon Bastion. Here you can see all the stages of development of the city: the ceramic products of the settlement in the Bronze age, a large number of Greek ceramic products of the 5th century BC, Greek bronze helmets of the same period. Archaeologists have found fragments of the fortress wall of the 5th century BC. Many of the Museum`s exhibits belong to the later periods: Roman and Byzantine.
