Complesso Museale di San Francesco

The San Francesco Museum Complex in Trevi combines an art gallery, archaeological collections and a museum devoted to the culture of olive growing in a former Franciscan convent.

Why it matters

The complex brings together art, archaeology and local economic history within a building that has served religious, educational and civic purposes. Its collections connect Trevi's artistic heritage with the archaeological remains of ancient Trebiae and the region's olive culture.

What to notice

The cloister contains lunettes depicting episodes from the life of Saint Francis by Bernardino Gagliardi. The picture gallery includes works from Giotto's circle, the Renaissance painters Pintoricchio and lo Spagna, and the seventeenth-century painter Alessandro Turchi. Archaeological displays include Roman finds from Pietrarossa and a reconstructed Longobard tomb. The olive museum interprets the agricultural traditions of the area.

Context and history

Franciscans settled at the site in the thirteenth century, and the convent was rebuilt in the seventeenth century. After the Napoleonic suppression, Cardinal de Gregorio acquired the complex and had it restored by Giuseppe Valadier. Salesians occupied the building from 1893 to 1963, and it later housed a state middle school. The museum opened in 1996; archaeological collections were added in 2006 and expanded in 2018, and the olive museum was restyled in 2007.