The National Archaeological Museum of Capo Colonna was established to enrich and complete the visit to the nearby Capo Colonna Archaeological Park, home to one of the most important places of worship in Magna Graecia. The museum displays numerous artefacts that recount the long history of the sanctuary dedicated to Hera Lacinia and, more broadly, the life and transformations of the Capo Colonna area over the centuries.

The earliest finds testify to the presence of sacred buildings on the promontory from the Archaic period (7th–6th centuries BC), predating the construction of the great Classical-period temple (5th century BC), of which the museum displays architectural remains and offers a reconstruction of how it would have appeared in antiquity. Many artefacts make it possible to reconstruct the figure of the goddess Hera, religious practices, and the votive offerings presented by pilgrims as tokens of devotion.

During the Hellenistic and later the Roman periods (4th–2nd centuries BC), the sanctuary and the territory of the Lacinian promontory experienced new historical phases, marked by changes in public buildings, craft production, and trade. The museum itinerary thus provides a vivid picture of daily life and the economic and cultural relationships that animated this stretch of the Ionian coast.

Finally, the focus shifts symbolically toward the sea: in the waters off Capo Colonna, frequented since antiquity, numerous shipwrecks occurred. Underwater research has made it possible to recover wrecks and cargoes, of which the museum now displays the most significant finds, completing a narrative that intertwines land and sea, worship and daily life, memory and archaeology.