Museo Diocesano di Treviso

The Diocesan Museum of Treviso is housed in the Canoniche Vecchie, the former residences of the cathedral canons beside the Duomo. Its collection brings together archaeological finds, medieval art and objects from the cathedral treasury, tracing the city's religious and artistic history.

Why it matters

The Canoniche Vecchie are among Treviso's oldest buildings. Their terracotta floors and historic rooms form a fitting setting for holdings gathered from the cathedral and churches across the diocese. Fourteenth-century sarcophagi moved from the cathedral include the tomb of Alberto, a natural-sciences scholar shown teaching; the relief is evidence for teaching in Treviso in 1317.

What to notice

The archaeological collection includes the Roman lapide dei Seviri and other inscriptions from ancient Treviso. Medieval works include a fresco of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket and the Cristo Passo attributed to Tomaso da Modena. Paintings by Pozzoserrato, Leandro Bassano and Pompeo Batoni represent later periods. The collection also includes damasks, a Renaissance tapestry, stone sculpture and a mid-fourteenth-century wooden altar frontal in gold leaf depicting the Last Judgement. Among the cathedral objects are a silver statue of San Liberale, made by a German goldsmith in the seventeenth century, and a rock-crystal and enamel monstrance.

Context and history

The Canoniche Vecchie served for centuries as homes and offices for the cathedral chapter, forming part of the ecclesiastical quarter around Piazza del Duomo. The diocesan collection brings together parish furnishings, cathedral treasure and archaeological finds. The nearby cathedral crypt, with its small columns, dates to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.