Subsequently, a royal decree of 17 June 1878 sanctioned the creation of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Siracusa, which was only inaugurated in 1886, in its historic location on the cathedral square.

[1] From 1895 to 1934 Paolo Orsi directed the museum, but the increasing number of finds made a new space necessary at the current location in the garden of the villa Landolina.

[2][3] The museum contains artefacts from the prehistoric, Greek and Roman periods found in archaeological excavations in the city and other sites in Sicily.

Sector A is dedicated to the prehistoric (Upper Palaeolithic-Iron Age) with a display of rocks and fossils which testify to the various animals found in Sicily in the Quaternary.

Located next to the ancient Villa Landolina, outside the Museum, it is possible to visit the park opposite with finds from the Greek and Roman periods, as well as a non-Catholic cemetery with the tomb of the poet August von Platen.