Sacred Art Museum of Ponte di Legno

The idea of establishing a Diocesan Museum in Brescia is relatively recent.

The initiative was taken up by Monsignor Angelo Pietrobelli in the second half of the 1970s; he identified the convent complex of San Giuseppe, once home to the Observant Franciscans, as the suitable place to house the first core collection of works mostly coming from churches no longer in use and therefore difficult to access. In 1978, the Bishop of Brescia Luigi Morstabilini canonically established the “Religious Foundation” named “Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art”.

The museum was inaugurated on December 23 of the same year and was located in the first two cloisters of the convent complex. On April 21, 1988, Bishop Bruno Foresti replaced the previous statute with a new one, establishing that, besides the recovery and conservation of artworks and materials of the Diocese threatened by ruin and dispersion, the museum’s purposes also include restoration, cultural initiatives, and educational activities.

Meanwhile, the acquisition of the main cloister of the San Giuseppe complex, state-owned, was completed, a long and complex process that allowed, by the late 1980s, to place the collections of the Diocesan Museum in a more suitable and prestigious location.

In 2007 Bishop Giulio Sanguineti provided the Diocesan Museum with a new statute, simultaneously starting the procedure for the civil recognition of the Canonical foundation.

Visitor Information:

The museum is accessible by elevators and stairlifts for people with mobility difficulties.