The Museum has been set up on the second corridor of a 13th-century Benedictine cloister, which had already been equipped in the 15th century as residence for the canons and treasures the wardrobes carved by Carlo Riccioni, that once adorned the ex-sacristy of the Cathedral, illuminated manuscripts, incunabuli (12th-18th century) and a rich collection of liturgical baroque and rococo style paraments.
The museum consists furthermore of polyptycs, paintings on wood and on toile, one hundred items donated by Vincenzo Bindi, the works of the most important families of the majolica art tradition of Castelli (Grue, Gentili, Fuina, Cappelletti) and a Madonna with Child attributed to Luca della Robbia.
The Museum trail includes a visit to the Cloister where tablets from the Roman Age are exposed and to a wide Roman cistern, a rectangular basin dating from the republican period and converted during imperial age into a pool used to collect the waters from the superjacent thermal complex.
Note:
Entrance:
Winter time: through the Basilica Cathedral – Summer time: through the mediaeval Cloister.
It is forbidden to take pictures or to film inside the museum but not inside the cloister and the Roman cistern.