The civic and diocesan museum “La Castellina” occupies the entire western side of Piazza San Benedetto, the heart of Norcia’s historic center.
The building, constructed in 1554 based on a design by Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola by order of Pope Julius III, was originally built as a fortified residence for the apostolic governors and was used from the beginning to control the peripheral territories of the Papal States. When the Mountain Prefecture was established in 1569, La Castellina naturally became its seat. Restored in the 18th century following frequent earthquakes, starting from 1860 it housed the municipal offices until 1967, when it became the museum’s location.
Besides the interesting museum it hosts, La Castellina is also architecturally significant. Visiting the museum means admiring its container: a large, compact fortress with a quadrilateral shape.
Today it houses the Civic and Diocesan Museum, the Massenzi collection, and the permanent archaeological exhibit “Departing for the Beyond.” The first unites works of art from local sources (sacred furnishings, frescoes, paintings on canvas or panel, polychrome wooden or stone sculptures, glazed terracotta), property of the church or municipality, dating between the 12th and 18th centuries, including the 13th-century wooden cross by Petrus Pictor from the Campi district, or the large altarpiece by Antonio da Faenza with the Madonna and Child and Franciscan saints (1519), originally from the church of the Most Holy Annunciation. Giovanni Dalmata is credited with the stone sculptures (Madonna and Child and Saints John the Baptist and Evangelist, 1469) from the church of San Giovanni, while the refined glazed terracotta group of the Annunciation from the early 16th century is attributed to Luca Della Robbia. Donated in 2002, the Massenzi collection, one of the largest private Umbrian collections, mainly consists of bronze artifacts and Etruscan, Greek, and to a lesser extent Magna Graecian vases, dating from the 9th century BC to the Roman age. The donation also includes a polychrome terracotta statue attributed to Jacopo della Quercia.
Since 2003 the permanent archaeological exhibit “Departing for the Beyond” has been set up, composed of recent finds of rich burial goods dated between the late 4th and 1st century BC in the Hellenistic necropolises of Colle dell’Annunziata, Popoli, and the Santa Scolastica plain.
Information about the Civic and Diocesan Museum of Norcia
Piazza San Benedetto,
06046 Norcia (Perugia)
0743817030
servizisociali@comune.norcia.pg.it
https://www.artenorcia.net
Source: MIBACT
