Cortile della Maddalena

A porticoed courtyard in the heart of Alba holds a share of the city's cultural life: the civic library, the archaeology and natural science museum, the truffle museum and the music institute, all gathered in a former Dominican convent attested since the fifteenth century. The arcades also host events connected with Alba's International White Truffle Fair.

Why it matters

The Cortile della Maddalena is how Alba solved the modern problem of the monastic complex: rather than letting the ex convent of the Maddalena decay, the city turned it into a citadel of institutions. The state heritage catalogue records the convent among the architectural heritage of the territory, and the VisitAlba portal describes the space as the city's cultural "cittadella". Its institutions bring together archaeology, natural science, local history and the culture of the white truffle.

What to notice

• The portico's arcades and brick elevations retain the sober architectural character of the Quattrocento convent.
• The layering of uses — reading rooms, museum entrances, the Civico

Istituto Musicale — that keeps the courtyard in daily use rather than preserving it as a shell.

• The walls and exhibition surfaces around the arcade, where contemporary

works are displayed; the Centro Studi Beppe Fenoglio records two of Pinot Gallizio's "Fabbriche del Vento" placed in the Cortile.

• The courtyard's connection with the International White Truffle Fair reflects its continuing civic role.
• The adjoining church of Santa Maria Maddalena has a facade associated with architect Bernardo Vittone.

Context and history

The complex originated as a religious foundation: the ex Convento della Maddalena is attested from the 1400s, when the Dominican convent associated with the Beata Margherita di Savoia anchored this stretch of the main street. After the suppression of the religious houses, the buildings passed to civic use and were progressively adapted. The Federico Eusebio Civic Museum, founded in 1897, moved here in 1976; the Giovanni Ferrero civic library, established in 1960, was installed here after earlier peripatetic decades; the MUDET truffle museum and the Civico Istituto Musicale complete the ensemble today. Contemporary art has a place here too: works from the Pinot Gallizio collection documented by the Centro Studi Beppe Fenoglio are displayed in the courtyard. The International White Truffle Fair continues to use the courtyard as one of its venues, linking the former religious complex with Alba's civic life.