Museo Salinas (Palermo): Metopes, Tickets & What’s Open

In short: The Museo Archeologico Regionale “Antonino Salinas” is Sicily’s most important archaeological collection — its centrepiece is the Metopes of Selinunte, alongside the Palermo Stone with Egyptian royal annals. One point matters before your visit: only the ground floor is accessible. The upper floors with the famous Etruscan collection, the coin cabinet and the prehistoric material have been under refurbishment for years. Admission 8 € (reduced 4 €), Tue–Sat 9am–7pm, Sun until 1:30pm, closed Mondays. Plan around 1.5 hours.

Quick Facts

• Type: regional archaeological museum, the island’s most important collection
• Address: Piazza Olivella, old town of Palermo (near Teatro Massimo and Via Roma)
• Operator: Assessorato dei Beni Culturali of the Regione Siciliana; ticketing via CoopCulture
• Admission: 8 € / reduced 4 €; free on the first Sunday of the month (as of 07/2026)
• Opening: Tue–Sat 9am–7pm, Sun and public holidays 9am–1:30pm, closed Mondays; last admission 30 minutes before closing
• Important: only the ground floor is accessible — upper floors under refurbishment for years
• Highlights: Metopes of Selinunte, Palermo Stone, Zeus of Solunto, underwater and anchor collection
• Duration: around 1.5 hours (editorial estimate)
• Accessible: yes — wheelchair-friendly, stairlift, accessible restroom and parking

Why the visit is worthwhile — and what you should know

Anyone wanting to understand Sicily’s Greek antiquity can’t skip the Salinas. Here stand the Metopes of Selinunte: relief panels from the temples of that city on the south-west coast, destroyed by Carthage in 409 BC. They’re considered the most important sculptural ensemble of Greek art in the West — and they’ve stood in the same room, the former refectory of the Filippini congregation, for over 150 years.

At the same time, honesty is called for: you currently don’t see the whole museum. Construction has been under way since 2009, the building was fully closed from 2011, and on 27 July 2016 explicitly only the ground floor reopened — though that holds the most significant part of the collection, with around 30 percent more exhibits than before. The upper floors are still missing. Anyone arriving expecting to see Sicily’s complete archaeological collection is looking at part of it.

Who the visit suits

Criterion	Well suited	Limitations
Antiquity enthusiasts	the Metopes of Selinunte and the Palermo Stone alone justify the trip	prehistory, Etruscans and the coin cabinet currently not on view
Combined with Selinunte or Segesta	ideal — the museum holds the finds, the sites hold the buildings	—
Without a rental car	very good: central old-town location, bus 101 from the main station	—
In summer heat	indoor spaces; the courtyards give shade	—
Families with children	compact, manageable in a good hour	a classic museum without hands-on stations
People with limited mobility	wheelchair-friendly, stairlift, accessible restroom and parking	—
Repeat visitors	—	the route has been largely unchanged since 2016

What you’ll see

The entire route lies on the ground floor, spread across the courtyards and wings of the former convent.

The Metopes of Selinunte

The whole east wing with eight rooms is devoted to Selinunte: cults, architecture, sculpture, necropolises, the Demeter Malophoros sanctuary and the marble roof of Temple A. At its centre are the metopes of Temples C, E and F. Since the redisplay, newly attributed fragments — the so-called “small metopes” — and polychrome architectural terracottas round out the presentation; the latter are a reminder that Greek temples were painted, not white.

The Palermo Stone

In the west wing of the great cloister, in a room devoted to the history of writing, stands the Pietra di Palermo — a fragment of the annals of the first five Egyptian dynasties, recording around 700 years of history between roughly 3100 and 2300 BC. It’s one of the most important documents of Egyptian chronology anywhere, and came to Palermo as a gift in 1877. That it sits here rather than in Cairo, London or Turin is one of the oddities of museum history. Alongside it hang three of the eight bronze tablets of Entella.

Further highlights on the ground floor

• Phoenician sarcophagi from Cannita — evidence of the Punic presence in western Sicily.
• Colossal statue of Zeus of Solunto and the Torso dello Stagnone.
• Roman sculptures and sarcophagi in the great cloister — including Agrippina the Elder and Claudius as Zeus.
• Underwater and anchor collection in the small cloister: Punic, Greek and Roman amphorae, timbers from a wreck at Porticello in the fountain installation, and a large series of lead anchor stocks with symbols and inscriptions. The least spectacular yet most telling part of the house — here you see maritime trade, not the gods.
• Gold jewellery from Tindari, material from Centuripe, Randazzo and Agrigento.
• A fragment of the Parthenon frieze from the Robert Fagan collection.

What you currently don’t see

Honesty requires saying this too. Waiting on the upper floors:

• the Casuccini Etruscan collection — acquired from Chiusi in 1865, around 10,000 objects, the most important Etruscan collection outside Tuscany;
• the Medagliere, the coin cabinet;
• the prehistoric and Phoenician-Punic holdings, Byzantine and medieval material;
• the Bourbon donations from Pompeii.

The Ram of Syracuse, the Hellenistic bronze from the early 3rd century BC, is also a special case: in 2019 it was shown in the Sala Ipostila as a preview of the future display, and information trails off after that. We couldn’t confirm whether it’s currently on view — don’t count on it.

The building and its namesake

The museum occupies the former house of the Filippini congregation at the Olivella, begun in the late 16th century to a design by Antonio Muttone and completed in the 17th century. The complex still includes the church of Sant’Ignazio all’Olivella and the Oratorio di San Filippo Neri — both right next door and easy to miss.

After the dissolution of religious orders in 1866, the building became the seat of the Museo Nazionale. In the Second World War bombs destroyed an entire wing; the rebuild moved the entrance from the Piazza Olivella to Via Roma. After the medieval and early-modern department moved to the Palazzo Abatellis, a purely archaeological house remained.

The oldest core of the collection comes from the university museum of 1814. Antonino Salinas, an archaeologist and numismatist, led the house from 1873 to 1914, reorganised it for the first time and substantially expanded its holdings — which is why it bears his name. That it’s now called a “regional museum” rather than a “national museum” comes down to the autonomous region’s cultural authority: in 1975 Sicily’s state museums passed to the Regione Siciliana.

Tickets, prices and opening hours

Admission costs 8 €, reduced 4 €. CoopCulture has run the ticket desk since 2018; tickets are available on site or online. A combined ticket with the Orto Botanico and the Museo Doderlein costs 13 €. The Palermo Culture Pass (25.60 €, valid seven days) includes Salinas, Palazzo Chiaramonte-Steri, the Orto Botanico and Palazzo Riso — but not Abatellis.

As a facility of the Assessorato, the Sicilian regional tariff rules apply, which differ from those on the mainland:

Group	Rule	Note
First Sunday of the month	free	Sicily’s own regional rule
Under 18	free	regardless of nationality
EU citizens 18–25	50 percent	so 4 €
Over 65	full price	Sicily has no senior discount
Teachers, journalists	free	including fixed-term teachers
Disability + 1 companion	free	—
10 March	free	Giornata dei Beni Culturali Siciliani

Opening hours — with one caveat: we give Tuesday to Saturday 9:00am–7:00pm and Sunday 9:00am–1:30pm, per CoopCulture, the ticketing operator. In fairness: three official sources give three different closing times (7:00pm, 6:30pm, 6:00pm). We follow the ticketing operator, since its information is kept most current — but check the times before your visit. Monday is the closing day (exception: open on 14 August, closed on 16 August).

The “La Sicilia dei Templi” combined ticket

For western Sicily there’s a combined ticket linking Salinas with the Valley of the Temples, Segesta and Selinunte, valid 15 days, one admission per site. Worthwhile if you’re heading to several of these places anyway.

A price can’t be reliably stated here: the same sales page lists two different amounts, and a third official source gives a fourth. The original 2024 announcement (36.20 €) is in any case outdated — the current price for all four sites is around 44 €. The two-site combinations with Salinas run roughly 17 to 21 €. Check the current price directly with CoopCulture rather than relying on a figure found online.

Getting there

The museum sits on the Piazza Olivella, just behind Via Roma and around three minutes’ walk from the Teatro Massimo — right in the old town. From the Quattro Canti it’s about nine minutes on foot, from Palermo Centrale station around 20 minutes (our own estimate based on the map).

By bus: from the main station, AMAT line 101 runs to the “Roma – Poste” stop; from Stazione Notarbartolo, lines 102 and 103 run to “Cavour”.

By car: the museum sits at the edge of the old town’s ZTL. A disabled parking space is available. For everyone else, as everywhere in central Palermo: public transport or walking is the better choice. More on the city: Palermo; more generally bus & train in Sicily and car rental in Sicily.

On site: there’s a bookshop and cafeteria, scheduled tours for individual visitors and group tours in Italian and English. A downloadable audio guide costs 3.99 €. The museum publishes no rule on photography — ask on site.

Best time and common mistakes

As an indoor destination, the Salinas suits any time of year, and especially hot summer days. The most common mistakes:

• Expecting too much. The biggest pitfall isn’t a time but an expectation: only the ground floor is open. Anyone coming for the Etruscans or the coin cabinet comes for nothing.
• Sunday afternoon. Sundays close at 1:30pm — particularly annoying on the free first Sunday.
• Monday. Closing day.
• Relying on information found online. The museum’s own official pages have been “under revision” for years; prices and times contradict each other between official portals. When in doubt, go with what the ticketing operator says.

Combining the museum with Selinunte or Segesta gets you the most: the metopes in the museum first, then the temples on site — or the other way round. A seasonal overview for the island can be found under Best Time to Visit Sicily.

Nearby

• Chiesa di Sant’Ignazio all’Olivella and Oratorio di San Filippo Neri — in the same building complex, right next door.
• Teatro Massimo — a few minutes’ walk.
• Vucciria and Mercato del Capo — the two nearest historic markets.
• Palazzo Abatellis — around 20 minutes on foot in the Kalsa: painting and sculpture rather than archaeology.
• RISO — contemporary art.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources & update

Prices, opening hours, discounts and services according to the ticketing concessionaire CoopCulture and the tariff rules of the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana (Regione Siciliana); information on the collection, building and museum history from the museum’s website and the Regione Siciliana; restoration status from official communications from the Regione (contract award 2022) and the Assessorato’s notice of 19 October 2023; accessibility and transport links from the Comune di Palermo and CoopCulture. As of 16 July 2026. Where official sources disagree — closing times, the price of the “La Sicilia dei Templi” combined ticket, the street number, the exhibition status of the Ram of Syracuse — this is explicitly noted in the text. Admission and opening hours are time-dependent and should be checked before your visit.

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