Diocesan Museum and Tiepolo Galleries, Udine

The Diocesan Museum and Tiepolo Galleries have been housed since 1995 in the eighteenth-century archiepiscopal 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 wisdom 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 today of the Archbishop. The architectural and pictorial context of extraordinary beauty in which the museum collections were set up 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 significant part of the artistic heritage preserved by the Museum comes from the parishes of the Diocese of Udine. The wooden sculpture section is almost entirely composed of works that, for conservation and protection reasons, were preferred to be housed in a structure that offers greater security guarantees compared to the original places of worship.

The rooms in which the various collections are arranged and the noble floor represent another point of excellence for the Museum. In fact, it is possible to enjoy the beauty of the eighteenth-century frescoes by Giambattista Tiepolo in the palace, who decorated by order of the then Patriarch Dionisio Dolfin the ceiling of the Grand Staircase, the Guests Gallery, and the Red Room. Also on the noble floor, the suggestive grotesques by Giovanni da Udine can be admired in the Blue Room, the stuccoes of the Yellow Room, and the Patriarchal Library, guardian of a very rich book heritage.

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