Il Museo, inaugurated in 2000, is divided into two sections: the first inside the Bishop’s Palace, the second inside the Cathedral in the North Gallery. Objects and artifacts of great historical-artistic and liturgical value are preserved and displayed. The collection, formed over time thanks to the precious gifts that illustrious figures and pilgrims left at the Cathedral after stopping to venerate the tomb of the martyr St. Donnino, consists of furnishings, vessels, goldsmith’s works, and sacred vestments. Among the many testimonies, a medieval cup called the ‘Chalice of St. Donnino’, a work of Rhenish goldsmithery from the 12th-13th century, a bronze dove, an 18th-century monstrance, and a Madonna enthroned with Child, considered the masterpiece of Benedetto Antelami (ca. 1150-1230), stand out.
The Treasure Room houses the oldest items, a seemingly heterogeneous core of objects related to the veneration of the patron or the furnishing of his sanctuary: archaeological finds, architectural fragments, stone furnishings and sculptures, paintings, and liturgical objects. They cover a period of about six centuries, from the 11th to the 16th, testifying to the importance of the church of St. Donnino in the first three centuries after the year 1000. Among these, the Marian Majesty, carved by Benedetto Antelami (late 12th century), represents the most important masterpiece from the Cathedral. Numerous liturgical objects and sacred furnishings made after the erection of the Cathedral as a diocesan Cathedral (1601) are also on display in the showcases. Surrounding the treasure, many paintings from the Cathedral and the Bishop’s Palace hang on the walls.
In the north gallery, accessible from inside the Cathedral, is located the medieval Chest where the Chapter of St. Donnino kept the parchments of privileges and church properties. Placed on supports are some of the Cathedral’s wooden sets: the reliquary busts (17th century) used for the Saints’ feast; series of altar furnishings (candlesticks, crosses, and tabernacles – 17th-19th centuries); the Baroque processional throne of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This section concludes with a wooden Paliotto (19th century) fixed to the back wall. The last room is occupied by the large organ built in 1910 by the Tamburini company of Crema, of which the old manually operated bellows are visible.
Information about Museo del Duomo di Fidenza
Via Don Minzoni, 10/a,
43036 Fidenza (Parma)
0524514883
musefide@museodelduomodifidenza.191.it
Source: MIBACT
