The Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica was founded 190 years ago on the Capitol in Rome, in Palazzo Caffarelli, seat of the Prussian ambassador to the Holy See. Six years later the Prussian ambassador Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen had the Casa Tarpea built on the Capitol for the still small Instituto’s collection and library. The building housed the institute until 1877. During this period the institute’s character and legal status changed. What had been a private European initiative became an institution of the Prussian state, named the German Archaeological Institute; its headquarters by that time were already in Berlin.
The Rome Department of the DAI remains one of the most
important international research centres in Rome and is home to one of the
largest archaeological libraries not just in Italy, but worldwide.
At present the Rome Department is housed in a building on Via Sicilia near the
Villa Borghese. Its work mainly consists in researching the cultural heritage
of Europe with a particular focus on Italy but also neighbouring cultures, e.g.
in North Africa.
