Pinacoteca Museo Sant'Egidio

Annexed to the church of San Pasquale Baylon in Taranto's Borgo, the Pinacoteca Museo Sant'Egidio joins Neapolitan eighteenth-century painting with the devotional history of the Franciscan complex. Its rooms contain works by Luca Giordano, Francesco Solimena and Corrado Giaquinto, alongside sacred furnishings and objects connected with the cult of Sant'Egidio da Taranto.

Why it matters

The collection broadens the story of a city often associated with Greek archaeology and naval history. It includes a notable group of Neapolitan Settecento paintings and reflects the Franciscan world of San Pasquale Baylon and Sant'Egidio Maria, the Taranto-born alms-gatherer canonised in 1996. The museum's historic objects were assembled in service of that devotional complex.

What to notice

In the church's sacristy, a group of half-figure apostles is traditionally attributed to Francesco Fracanzano. The museum rooms bring seventeenth-century works into dialogue with eighteenth-century painters including Solimena, Giaquinto and Giordano. Sacred furnishings, statues and a collection of jewels preserve the material history of the convent and its cults.

Context and history

In 1747, Fra Serafino Carrozzini della Concezione da Soleto obtained a decree from Charles III of Bourbon, with the intercession of Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony, to found the convent. The decree provided a subsidy of 180 ducats, received approval from Pope Benedict XIV and gave the institution the title of Reale Convento. The queen donated jewels in gratitude for a miracle attributed to San Pasquale Baylon. The church was consecrated in 1794; its façade was designed by Cesare Bazzani in 1937. The Pinacoteca-Museo Sant'Egidio opened in 2018, extending the friars' work of preserving and sharing the complex's art and history.