Museo Ostiense
Tucked inside a 16th-century building at the edge of the archaeological park, the Museo Ostiense houses the finest sculpture, sarcophagi and everyday objects excavated from Ostia over two centuries. Your park ticket gets you in free, and on a weekday you may have entire rooms to yourself.
Highlights of the Collection
The museum's star piece is the marble group of Mithras slaying the bull, found in one of Ostia's many Mithraic temples and still radiating a fierce, cult-like energy. Nearby stands a beautifully restored statue of Trajan, and a series of portrait busts of merchants and freedmen — ordinary Romans whose faces feel startlingly modern.
A whole room is devoted to reconstructed shop signs and trade weights, giving a wonderfully grounded sense of daily commercial life in the port. The painted tomb panels from the Isola Sacra necropolis, showing tradespeople proudly displaying their tools, are particularly affecting.
The Isola Sacra Necropolis Connection
The museum provides the perfect prelude to visiting the nearby Necropolis of Isola Sacra (a 10-min drive or taxi), where hundreds of brick-built family tombs line the road between Ostia and Portus. Many tombs still carry terracotta portrait medallions above their doors — an intimate, rarely visited complement to the main site.
Ask staff at the museum desk about guided necropolis tours; small-group visits are organised on weekend mornings and are superb value at around €5 extra.
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