Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art, Alghero

It is located in the historic center of the city, near the cathedral, in the oratory of Our Lady of the Rosary, where the homonymous suppressed confraternity founded in 1568 in the church of San Francesco was based. In the museum, inaugurated on June 30, 2000, the liturgical treasure of the Alghero cathedral and other historic churches of the city is preserved. The museum collection is divided into six sections: silverware, paintings, wooden sculptures, cabinetry, stone material, and bronzes. Silverware: special importance is given to the reliquary of the True Cross, a valuable work of Catalan origin, forged by an unknown silversmith from Alghero in the 1500s. Cabinetry: this section includes a large Baroque tabernacle in inlaid wood, coming from the church of San Giovanni Battista, a typical example of the austere cabinetry of the Capuchin Order. Wooden sculptures: this section houses several statues of saints and the Virgin Mary, testimony to the cults and devotions that, over the centuries, have nourished the faith of the population of Alghero. The bronze collection includes two bells, one of which is from the 15th century and comes from the bell tower of the cathedral. The museum collection includes paintings dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. It is worth highlighting the predella of the Annunciation altarpiece, from the little church of Speranza, in the rural area of Alghero, attributed to a painter of Catalan education active in the early 1500s. Remarkable is the cycle of paintings attributable to a Genoese painter from the mid-17th century who drew scenes of the life of Christ and the Virgin from Rubens.