Museo Baroffio e del Santuario

The Museo Baroffio stands beside the sanctuary on the Sacro Monte of Varese. Its collections combine the sacred art of the mountain, paintings assembled by Giuseppe Baroffio Dall’Aglio and works of twentieth-century European art.

Why it matters

The museum traces the history of the Sacro Monte through Lombard art from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, including paintings, miniatures, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, coins and textiles. The Baroffio collection adds Flemish and Dutch paintings, while a modern section places the mountain’s devotional heritage in dialogue with twentieth-century European art. Parts of the collection are displayed in rooms beneath the sanctuary, where traces of fifteenth-century frescoes survive.

What to notice

A Marian section, created at the initiative of Monsignor Pasquale Macchi, brings together more than sixty works by twentieth-century artists, including Renato Guttuso, Floriano Bodini, Enrico Manfrini and Trento Longaretti, some of whom also worked on the Sacro Monte. The collection’s range is reflected in the contrast between modern galleries and smaller historic rooms beneath the sanctuary. The museum route also connects with the sanctuary crypt.

Context and history

The museum grew from the artistic patrimony accumulated at Santa Maria del Monte and was later joined by Giuseppe Baroffio Dall’Aglio’s paintings. A restoration added a section devoted to twentieth-century art, establishing a dialogue between the mountain’s devotional collections and modern European works. The museum is recognised among Lombardy’s cultural institutions.