The François Tomb has finally been returned to the public and forms part of the Museum’s collections. A visit to the tomb and the exhibition ‘The Return of the Heroes’ is included in the admission ticket; there are no additional costs, but booking is compulsory. Visits are limited to a maximum of 30 people per group, with departure slots every 20 minutes. Bookings can be made by purchasing tickets in advance on the Coopculture website or directly at the on-site ticket office, where you can check which time slots and places are still available.
The Museum’s audio guide is available at the ticket office for €7, featuring new audio content on the tomb and the artefacts on display.
To book admission for groups and schools, please contact the Coopculture call centre on 0639967373 (Monday to Saturday, 9.00 am to 2.00 pm).
The François Tomb is not open to visitors on days when admission is free (e.g. the first Sunday of the month).
The tour route is designed to guide visitors through the tomb’s chamber. An immersive exhibition space tells the story of the archaeological site of Vulci and the discovery at the Ponte Rotto necropolis on 1 May 1857. Stories and characters come to life, revealing the extraordinary figurative art and the significance of the depictions.
And then, beyond the door, lies the extraordinary cycle of paintings, reconstructed to look as it must have done within the tomb’s chambers. It depicts episodes from Greek mythology and Etruscan tradition, such as the sacrifice of Trojan prisoners for the funeral of Patroclus or the fratricidal struggle between Eteocles and Polynices, including a portrait of Vel Saties, the tomb’s founder and patron, right through to the battles between Etruscan heroes and Macstarna, the future King Servius Tullius, who frees the Vulcente chieftain Celio Vibenna. A narrative in stone and colour that reveals how the Etruscan aristocracy found in myth a means of self-representation and legitimisation.
In the final room, the exhibition ‘Il Ritorno degli Eroi’. Works of art, jewellery and previously unpublished documents, on loan from prestigious international institutions such as the Musée du Louvre, the British Museum, the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels, the Musée cantonal d’archéologie et d’histoire in Lausanne, the Vatican Museums and the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, reconstruct the grave goods and recount the tomb’s original context.