A diver found the Riace Bronzes, 8 meters down

The Riace Bronzes were found in August 1972 by a diver, Stefano Mariottini, at 8 meters of depth off Riace Marina, and they have been in Reggio Calabria ever since.

Eight meters down, off a Calabrian beach

The find happened in August 1972 in the sea at Riace Marina, at a depth of 8 meters, and the person who made it was a diver named Stefano Mariottini rather than an archaeological mission.

Eight meters is nothing. It is a depth a swimmer reaches on one breath, just off a beach in the month when that coast is at its busiest.

Two Greek statues of the 5th century BC had been lying there, and everything that has been written about them since starts from an ordinary summer swim.

What they are, in the detail the museum publishes

The two bronzes stand just under 2 meters tall, cast by the lost-wax method, with eyes in calcite and glass paste and lips and anatomical details inlaid in copper and silver.

The museum does not publish an exact height in centimeters and does not publish the maximum number of visitors allowed in the room at one time. It says just under 2 meters, and capacity-limited, and this page will not stretch either statement further.

Their origin is placed by hypothesis in Attica or the Argolid. The room they occupy, shared with the Porticello finds, is metered for conservation, which is why entry can be paced even on an empty afternoon.

€10, and a €5 way in after 6:00 pm

The full ticket is €10, reduced €2 for EU visitors aged 18 to 25, free under 18, with rates in force since July 1, 2024 and confirmed in September 2026. Prices on this page are in euros.

There is a second door into the same building: MArRC Slim at €5, valid from 6:00 pm to closing. A separate €5 ticket covers temporary exhibitions, and annual passes run at €22 gold, €40 family and €5 for 18 to 25 year olds.

Opening is Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 am to 8:00 pm, last entry 7:30 pm (09:00 to 20:00 on Italian signs), closed Monday. Groups book on 06 39967600².

Two minutes from the station, which changes the day

The museum is about 2 minutes on foot from Reggio Calabria Lido station at Piazza De Nava 26, and that walk is the reason this can be a stop rather than a trip.

If you are crossing to Sicily or coming back, the bronzes fit into the gap between two trains without a taxi or a hire car. Buses link the museum to the airport and to the port; the museum does not publish line numbers or frequencies, and neither will we.

The cloakroom is free, there is a bookshop, and tours run in Italian and English.

Why they are in Reggio and not in Rome

The statues are in the regional museum closest to the sea they came out of, at Piazza De Nava 26, which is a rarer arrangement in Italy than it sounds. They were found off Riace Marina in August 1972 and they stayed in Calabria.

That decision is the reason a museum in Reggio holds one of the defining objects of Greek sculpture, and the reason it is worth building a day around rather than treating as a stop between two trains.

The room is capacity-limited for conservation, so entry is metered even when the building is quiet. Allow for a wait at the door of the room itself, not only at the ticket desk.

When to come, if you are American

39.7%⁴ of American nights in Italy fall between June and August, with July the peak month, so the odds are that you are reading this about a July afternoon in Calabria.

That is exactly when the €5 evening ticket earns its place. The 6:00 pm entry puts you indoors at the hour the seafront is still too hot to walk, and the museum stays open until 8:00 pm.

For the rest of the city, see things to do in Reggio Calabria, and for the region around it, Calabria.

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