Sacred Art Museum of Ponte di Legno

The idea of establishing a Diocesan Museum in Brescia is relatively recent.

The initiative was undertaken by Monsignor Angelo Pietrobelli in the second half of the 1970s; he identified the San Giuseppe convent complex, once home to the Observant Franciscans, as the suitable location to house the first core of works mostly coming from churches that were no longer officiated and therefore hardly accessible. In 1978, the Bishop of Brescia Luigi Morstabilini canonically established the “religious foundation” called the “Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art”.

The museum was inaugurated on December 23 of the same year and was located in the first two cloisters of the convent complex. On April 21, 1988, Bishop Bruno Foresti replaced the previous statute with a new one, which established that, in addition to the recovery and conservation of artworks and materials of the Diocese threatened by ruin and dispersion, the museum’s purposes also include restoration, cultural initiatives, and educational activities.

Meanwhile, the acquisition of the main cloister of the San Giuseppe complex, state-owned property, was completed—a long and complex process that allowed, at the end of the 1980s, the placement of the Diocesan Museum collections in a more suitable and prestigious location.

In 2007, Bishop Giulio Sanguineti provided the Diocesan Museum with a new statute, simultaneously starting the process for the civil recognition of the Canonical foundation.

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The museum is accessible via elevators and stairlifts for people with motor difficulties.