Museo del Duomo di Ravello

Ravello Cathedral's museum preserves medieval sculpture, liturgical silver and other works associated with the church. Its setting in the ancient crypt places these objects within the architectural complex for which many were made.

Why it matters

Changes to the cathedral dismantled and dispersed parts of its medieval furnishings. The museum brings surviving fragments into a shared context, helping explain the artistic patronage of the families who shaped medieval Ravello.

What to notice

Among the best-known works is the medieval marble bust traditionally identified as Sigilgaida Rufolo. Fragments of the ciborium made by Matteo di Narni in 1279 preserve parts of an elaborate structure dismantled in 1773. The mosaic-decorated pluteus known as the Falconer adds another distinctive image from the cathedral's medieval furnishings.

Reliquary sculpture and silverwork represent later devotional traditions, including the cults of Santa Barbara and San Pantaleone. Granite columns and a mixture of barrel and cross vaults give the crypt its own architectural interest.

Context and history

Planning began in 1973, and the museum opened in 1983 through collaboration involving the parish and the Salerno heritage authorities. An additional room was incorporated in 1994. Before its museum role, the crypt had housed the Congrega del Carmine. The collection therefore occupies a space with its own history of religious association as well as its relationship to the cathedral above.