Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Terni (CAOS)
Housed inside a beautifully restored former industrial complex in the San Carlo district, CAOS (Centro Arti Opificio Siri) is one of central Italy's most ambitious contemporary art museums — and one of its least visited, which means you can stand alone in front of a Leoncillo sculpture or a Nino Franchina installation without another tourist in sight.
The Collection
The permanent collection centres on 20th-century Italian art with particular strength in sculpture: the Ternano sculptor Leoncillo Leonardi is represented by a superb group of ceramic works, while the Franchina collection of welded-iron sculptures fills an entire industrial hall with raw, angular energy.
Temporary exhibitions — often touring shows from major Italian and European institutions — are staged in the vast former factory floor, giving even modest shows a monumental scale that smaller venues cannot match.
The Building and Surroundings
The Opificio Siri was a chemical plant built in the early 20th century; the adaptive reuse has kept the original brick walls, iron columns and sawtooth skylights, creating an industrial aesthetic that suits the modernist collection perfectly.
The museum sits beside the Nera river on the southern edge of the city; the riverside path outside is a pleasant 20-minute walk back to the centre along a tree-lined embankment.
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