The Christian Museum – founded in 1946, but renovated and expanded under the direction of the current archpriest of the Cathedral, Mons. Guido Genero – hosts two prestigious sections: the Lombard Heritage and the Cathedral Treasury. The first features two famous monuments included in the UNESCO nomination: the Ratchis Altar (recently restored with the rediscovery of original polychromes) and the Baptistery of Callistus.
The Cathedral Treasury presents in a completely new and coordinated way goldsmith and liturgical objects, works of pictorial art (notably the “Noli me tangere” by Pordenone and two works by Veronese) and sculptures, manuscripts, and codices that vividly attest to the absolute prestige of the ancient capital’s multi-millennial Christian history.
Already recognized worldwide are also some of the precious sacred vestments on display, such as the 16th-century “Barbaro chasuble,” an exquisitely woven Turkish textile product previously exhibited at the MoMA in New York, London, Paris, and Venice; the 14th-century “Mitre of St. Paulinus”; the 17th-century vestments for the traditional Mass of the Great Sword.
Cividale and Friuli – never marginal in history, culture, commerce, and art – have managed to assimilate the best of a vast territory characterized by the expressions of Latin, Germanic, and Slavic cultures; merge it in unity and defend it with their stone walls. Now the goal – encouraged by the UNESCO nomination – is to create an integrated system that includes agreements and institutional synergies at regional, transregional, and international levels to discover, in a shared geo-cultural corridor, affinities and common expressive elements.
Among the main synergies is certainly that between public institutions and religious institutions, holders of an immense heritage of art – basilicas, frescoes, statues, illuminated manuscripts, refined goldsmith works – whose enhancement is also part of the Church’s cultural, social, and religious promotion plans.
Information about Christian Museum and Cathedral Treasury
Via Condotti, 1
33043 Cividale del Friuli (Udine)
0432730403
info@mucris.it
https://www.webdiocesi.chiesacattolica.it
from Wednesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 15:00 to 18:00
4.00
Source: MIBACT
