The history if the new exhibition space for the Musei Capitolini in the former Giovanni Montemartini Thermoelectric Centre, an extraordinary example of industrial archaeology converted into a museum, began in 1997 with the transfer of hundreds of sculptures to the new location during the restructuring works carried out across much of the Capitoline complex.
The Montemartini centre was the first public power plant to produce electricity for Rome. It opened at the beginning of the 1900s on the Via Ostiense, between the General Markets and the left bank of the Tiber.
Its history is intertwined with that of the Municipal Electric Company, now Acea, which was created in 1909.
Nella Centrale Montemartini è ambientato un ciclo di sei lezioni sull’arte classica condotto da Salvatore Settis, archeologo e storico dell'arte, per Rai Educational:
1. Tracce del classicismo intorno a noi
2. Riscoperta dell’arte greca (dal Sette al Novecento)
3. Arte classica, libertà, rivoluzioni: la lezione di Winckelmann
4. Dalle rovine al museo: l’arte classica risorge nel Rinascimento
5.