Museo Diocesano di Spoleto

Spoleto's Diocesan Museum occupies rooms in the Archbishop's Palace. Paintings, sculpture and other sacred works preserve aspects of the religious and artistic history of Spoleto and its surrounding territory.

Why it matters

The collection brings together works from different churches and periods. It places individual objects within the wider history of local devotion, patronage and artistic exchange.

What to notice

The palace's frescoed rooms include the sixteenth-century spaces known as the Cardinal's Apartment. Medieval works, including the painted Blue Cross, contrast with later painting. Artists represented in the collection include Neri di Bicci, Filippino Lippi, Domenico Beccafumi and the Cavalier d'Arpino. The nearby church of Sant'Eufemia adds an architectural dimension to the complex through its Romanesque forms and upper galleries.

Context and history

The museum was established in the late 1960s. Its palace setting and the adjoining church preserve a longer ecclesiastical history. Sant'Eufemia was associated with a Benedictine community in the tenth century, while later rebuilding shaped the Romanesque architecture that distinguishes the church.