Il Museo, inaugurated in 2000, is divided into two sections: the first inside the Episcopal Palace, the second inside the Cathedral in the North Matroneum. Objects and artifacts of great historical-artistic and liturgical value are preserved and exhibited. 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 are noted a medieval cup called the ‘Chalice of St. Donnino’, a work of Rhenish goldsmithing from the XII-XIII century, a bronze dove, an XVIII-century monstrance, and a Madonna enthroned with Child, considered the masterpiece of Benedetto Antelami (ca. 1150-1230). The Treasure Room holds the oldest assets, a last apparently heterogeneous core of objects related to the veneration of the patron saint 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 XI to the XVI, witnessing 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 XII century), represents the most important masterpiece coming from the Cathedral. In the display cases numerous liturgical objects and sacred furnishings made after the erection of the Cathedral to diocesan Cathedral status (1601) are also exhibited. Surrounding the treasure, numerous paintings from the Cathedral and the Bishopric hang on the walls. In the north Matroneum, which is accessed from inside the Cathedral, the medieval Chest is located, where the Chapter of St. Donnino preserved the parchments of privileges and properties of the church. Placed on supports, some of the wooden fittings of the Cathedral: the Bust-reliquaries (XVII century) used for the Saints’ feast; the series of altar fittings (candelabra, crosses, and tabernacles – XVII-XIX century); the Baroque processional throne of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This section concludes with a wooden frontal (XIX century) fixed to the back wall. The last room is occupied by the great organ built in 1910 by the Tamburini firm of Crema, whose 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
