The 'Giuseppe Andreassi' National Archaeological Museum is located outside the city walls of ancient Gnathia in a vast Messapian necropolis. The museum is near the modern town of Egnazia a suburb of Fasano . The structure was renovated and inaugurated on July 25 2013. Its ten rooms house artefacts from the nearby archaeological excavations some of the region's most important ones. The extensive exhibition leads visitors on a journey through the 3000-year history of this important Bronze Age settlement which was subsequently inhabited by the Messapians and later became a Roman city and then in the early Middle Ages an episcopal see . The museum is named after Giuseppe Andreassi its director until 1985 and hosts an office of the Superintendence for the Archaeological Heritage of Puglia . This is the body that oversees the vast excavation area the restoration laboratory the technical office the cataloguing office the library and the educational services.
