Museo Diocesano di Albenga

Albenga's Diocesan Museum occupies the former bishop's palace beside the cathedral, preserving frescoed rooms, sacred art and the city's early Christian baptistery.

Why it matters

The palace itself is central to the museum's story. Once the residence of Albenga's bishops, it now contains collections spanning more than a millennium of diocesan history. The paintings include works attributed to Guido Reni and Giovanni Lanfranco, alongside palaeochristian material, medieval art, tapestries and sculpture.

What to notice

The Stanza delle Verzure, commissioned under Bishop Napoleone Fieschi in the 1460s, uses fresco to imitate draped tapestries with foliage and flowers. A chapel in the ancient tower also preserves frescoes from the same period. The palace includes a sequence of episcopal coats of arms and portraits. Among the paintings are a Martyrdom of Saint Catherine attributed to Guido Reni, a Miracle of Saint Veranus attributed to Lanfranco and an old copy after Caravaggio of Saint John in the Desert.

Context and history

The present palace reflects a sixteenth-century renovation of older medieval structures, including a loggia whose pillars remain visible at ground level. The bishop's residence moved to Palazzo Costa-Balestrino in 1954, after which the diocesan collection occupied the building. The museum's collections connect the cathedral precinct with the adjacent palaeochristian baptistery.