Museo diocesano e gallerie del Tiepolo, Udine

The Diocesan Museum and Tiepolo Galleries have been housed since 1995 in the eighteenth-century archbishop’s palace, once the residence of the Patriarchs of Aquileia. The interior of the palace appears as an extraordinary tribute to the grace of color and the scenographic skill of Giambattista Tiepolo. Established in 1963, the Diocesan Museum has been located since April 29, 1995, in the Patriarchal Palace of Udine, once the residence of the Patriarch of Aquileia and now of the archbishop. The architectural and pictorial context of extraordinary beauty in which the museum collections were arranged was the basis for the choice to call the entire complex “Diocesan Museum and Tiepolo Galleries”.

The contents

The collection of the Diocesan Museum and Tiepolo Galleries includes about 700 works, some of which are on public display.

A substantial part of the artistic heritage kept by the Museum comes from the parishes of the diocese of Udine. The wooden sculpture section is in fact almost entirely composed of works that, for conservation and protection reasons, were preferred to be housed in a structure offering greater security guarantees than the original places of worship.

The rooms in which the various collections are exhibited and the main floor represent a further point of excellence for the Museum. In the palace it is indeed possible to enjoy the beauty of the eighteenth-century frescoes by Giambattista Tiepolo, who decorated by order of the then Patriarch Dionisio Dolfin the ceiling of the Honor Staircase, the Guest Gallery, and the Red Room. Also on the main floor, one can admire the evocative grotteschi by Giovanni da Udine in the Blue Room, the stuccos of the Yellow Room, and the Patriarchal Library, custodian of a very rich book heritage.

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