Museo della Sindone

This museum presents the history of the Shroud of Turin, which is housed in the city's cathedral. Documents, replicas and research materials trace the shroud's recorded history, its centuries of veneration and the scientific examinations that made it one of the world's most studied objects.

Why it matters

The museum presents the Shroud's documentary history, iconography and scientific investigation. Its exhibits cover the documentary record, the iconography that echoes the cloth across centuries, and the programme of scientific investigation conducted on the fabric. Its materials show how science, history and belief interact around a single object.

What to notice

A hologram illustrates the three-dimensional properties of the cloth's image, a phenomenon that emerged from the scientific examinations of the late 20th century and is difficult to grasp from photographs. The case holding the reliquary container that preserved the shroud from the 16th century until the late 20th connects the object's custodial history. The wall sequence of reproductions and historical documents traces the known record of the cloth's movements, from its documented arrival in the Savoy lands to the expositions that drew crowds to Turin. The museum is distinct from the cathedral chapel where the relic itself rests.

Context and history

The museum was established in 1936 by the Confraternita del Santo Sudario, the confraternity long associated with the care of the shroud, and since 1998 it has been housed in the crypt of the Chiesa del Santo Sudario at Via San Domenico, in the Quadrilatero Romano near the Duomo. Its displays have grown alongside the major expositions of the shroud in Turin, and its materials reflect both the historical documentation of the relic and the scientific campaigns, from the 1978 examinations onward, that brought international attention to the cloth and made its study a standing subject of debate. It sits within the wider complex of Shroud-related sites in the city, distinct from the Chapel of the Holy Shroud attached to the cathedral, where the cloth itself is kept.