The museum is located inside the Rocca, in the upper part of Spoleto’s historic center. The museum was created to document the history of the Duchy, founded by the Lombards, a Germanic people who broke the political unity of the Italian peninsula in the 6th century AD. The Rocca was built by order of the Spanish Cardinal Egidio Albornoz starting in 1360. It served as the seat of papal legates and popes. Today, with the gradual restoration of the rooms and the mural paintings that still adorn its walls, the complex has finally regained its original charm after having been used as a prison for a long time. The museum offers an interesting document for understanding the Spoleto area from the 4th to the 15th century and at the same time illustrates, through panels, the beauty of the frescoed rooms in which the works are displayed.
Inaugurated in 2007, the museum was born from a project to collect artworks and materials, mostly already kept at the civic museum and art gallery premises, useful to document the origin, development, and numerous historical and cultural impacts of the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto. Divided into two spaces around the courtyard of honor, one on the ground floor and the other on the first floor, it comprises fifteen rooms. Overall, the collection of works covers a timespan from the 4th century AD, with evidence from the first Christian communities, until the 15th century. Designed as a suitable tool for the knowledge of the city and territory, the museum intends to make the visitor perceive the complexity of the historical events that affected it, and at the same time its cultural vitality even after the fall of the Duchy. The path begins from the 4th century illustrating the first Christian communities with materials from funerary areas and nearby worship buildings, emphasizing the phenomenon of monasticism. It continues with works from the 6th to the 9th century, witnesses to the territorial artistic evolution, and concludes with sculptures and paintings from the 12th to the 15th century that well document the extraordinary artistic flourishing of the city and territory, such as the Triptych of Santa Maria delle Grazie by Niccolò di Liberatore. The itinerary is completed by informative panels that explain the historical function of each environment visited.
Information about the National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto
Piazza Campello, 1
06049 Spoleto (Perugia)
0743224952
pm-umb@Bbeiculturali.it
https://www.sbap-umb.beniculturali.it
Source: MIBACT
