II civic and diocesan museum “La Castellina” occupies the entire western side of Piazza San Benedetto, the heart of the historic center of Norcia.
The building, constructed in 1554 based on a design by Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola at the behest of Pope Julius III, was born as a fortified residence for the apostolic governors and was used from the outset to control the peripheral territories by the Papal State. When the Mountain Prefecture was established in 1569, La Castellina became its natural seat. Restored in the 18th century following frequent earthquakes, from 1860 it became the seat of the municipal offices until it became a museum in 1967.
Besides the interesting museum it houses, La Castellina is important from an architectural point of view. Visiting the museum also means admiring its container, a powerful and compact fortress with a quadrilateral shape.
Today it houses the Civic and Diocesan Museum, the Massenzi collection, and the permanent archaeological exhibition “Journey to the Afterlife.” The first brings together works of art of local origin (sacred furnishings, frescoes, paintings on canvas or panel, polychrome wooden or stone sculptures, glazed terracottas), ecclesiastical or municipal property, dating from the 12th to the 18th century, including the 13th-century wooden cross by Petrus Pictor from the hamlet of Campi, or the large altarpiece by Antonio da Faenza with the Madonna and Child and Franciscan saints (1519), originally in the Church of the Most Holy Annunciation. Giovanni Dalmata is responsible for the stone sculptures (Madonna and Child and Saints John the Baptist and Evangelist, 1469) from the Church of San Giovanni, while the refined group of the Annunciation in glazed terracotta, 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 exhibition “Journey to the Afterlife” has been set up, consisting of recent finds of rich tomb equipment, dating from the late 4th to the 1st century BC, in the Hellenistic necropolises of Colle dell’Annunziata, Popoli, and the plain of Santa Scolastica.
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
