Museo Diocesano di Gerace

Inside Gerace's cathedral, the Diocesan Museum preserves liturgical works accumulated across centuries of church life. Its collection includes a twelfth-century reliquary cross, silver objects and a Brussels tapestry signed by Jan Leyniers.

Why it matters

The collection brings together furnishings and ornaments from Gerace's cathedral and other churches and confraternities in the diocese. The objects chart the patronage and devotional life of the region. The signed tapestry by Jan Leyniers, from the Bishop's Palace, connects this Calabrian hill town to the seventeenth-century weaving workshops of Brussels.

What to notice

The stauroteca, a gilded-silver reliquary cross set with stones and pearls, is attributed to workshops in Jerusalem or Norman Sicily and is dated to the twelfth century. Other highlights include a filigree chalice commissioned in 1726, a silver bust of Santa Veneranda, and an Immacolata commissioned in 1772. The cathedral treasury also preserves choir books, reliquaries and later silverwork. The Leyniers tapestry carries the mark of its Brussels-Brabant origin.

Context and history

The museum safeguards objects associated with Gerace's cathedral, bishopric and confraternities. The tapestry came from the Bishop's Palace and reflects the international connections of ecclesiastical patronage in the seventeenth century. Silver commissions by bishops Diez De Aux, Scoppa and Pellicano extend the collection's history into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.