Hosted in the seventeenth-century monastery of Santa Chiara, in the historical center of the city, the Archaeological Museum collects artifacts from prehistoric to medieval times from the territory of ancient Venafrum. Opened to the public in 1931 with a small exhibition of archaeological material, had to be used as an asylum for evacuees during the Second World War. In recent years it has reopened to the public with a new and more extensive exhibition, made even more interesting by the architectural setting of the monastery. It is the largest exhibition of Roman and medieval antiquities in the region, a reference point of a crossroads between Molise, Lazio and Campania. Here, the statues, frescoes, and marbles tell the story of the rich city of Venafrum and of the rediscovered Benedictine monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno.
Through the two floors of the museum, the ancient history of the city unfolds. From an important Samnite settlement, in Roman times it became one of the most flourishing centers of the region, famous in particular for the production of oil.
In the portico of the cloister there is material from the necropolis, which was distributed along the main access roads of the Roman city.
In the rooms are exposed architectural elements belonging to the decoration of the Roman theater and of the surrounding structures in Sant'Aniello; noteworthy are the two big statues of togati.
Among the sculptures there is the statue representing Venus, of Antonine age (II century A.D.), which was found in 1958 during the works for the construction of a house in via Colonia Giulia. For the archaic Samnite phase, a section of the museum illustrates the excavations of the necropolis of Pozzilli, and for the archaeological area of the Roman theater, upstream of the town, visits are possible on request. The richness of the Roman Venafrum is attested by the refined decorations of the monumental buildings and the patrician residences: frescoes from the exceptional conservation, mosaics and colored marbles and above all the splendid statues, among which the famous "Venus of Venafro"