9 November 2010 - 27 February 2011



Teotihuacan. La Città degli Dei (Teotihuacan. City of the Gods), the most important exhibition ever devoted exclusively to the pre-Columbian civilization of Teotihuacan (2nd - 7th centuries CE), is designed to acquaint the public for the very first time with the history, art and culture of one of the most prestigious, mysterious and fascinating empires of Central America, an empire which dominated the entire region before the coming of the Aztecs.
Numerous exhibits discovered in digs in the empire's capital, currently one of the most important archaeological sites in Mexico, will allow visitors to explore a pre-Columbian society whose still unsolved mysteries and enigmas continue to intrigue and to arouse unparalleled interest.
Over 300 masterpieces, ranging from fantastic monumental works of sculpture to onyx carvings and murals depicting religious beliefs and myths, statuettes in oxydian and jade, painted or inlaid terracotta vases and terracotta braziers with anthropomorphic, mythological and liturgical figures will testify to the sophistication, the creativity and the passion for art and design of a people whose capacity for expression, whose wisdom, and whose skill and culture are still enormously admired and closely studied today.
Long before the first European ever reached the shores of the American continent, Teotihuacan was known and admired by all the peoples who lived in the region, respect for its name spreading to and permeating all of the cultures that occupied what has now become Mexico and a part of Central America.
Teotihuacan is believed to have been founded around the 2nd century CE in the central region of Mexico, where it consolidated and grew until, a few centuries later, it had a population of almost 200,000 and it held sway over most of modern Mexico.  The city reached the peak of its splendor between 150 and 450 CE.
The empire excelled in every field of art, frequently devising original solutions of its own while also revisiting and disseminating elements that the capital attracted from the whole of Central America, and even importing stone materials from the great continent to lying to the north.