Venice is a tourist destination famed for the richness of its architectural landscape. Much of the historical patrimony consists of churches which date back to the Middle Ages and to the modern era. Venice is, thus, dotted with more than 100 places of worship, and trying to visit them all for the duration of a vacation in the lagoon, while it might be a rewarding attempt, remains a difficult tourist pursuit. As a possible alternative, tourists might just as well visit the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art of Venice which amasses an impressive collection of sacred art, rendering, at least fragmentarily, the wideness of the ecclesiastical culture of the city.

The museum was set up in 1976, following an idea of John Paul, back then a pope in the making, an idea later sustained by Cardinal Albino Luciani. It was set up in the former Benedictine Monastery of Sant’Appolonia in Castello, and its collections consist chiefly of works of sacred art transferred to the museum from their original location in sundry places of worship of Venice due to the fact the environment was deemed detrimental to their state, threatening their preservation. The museum patrimony shares the building with other two notable institutions, namely, the Marciano Lapidary and the Historical Patriarchy Archives.

Speaking of the museum patrimony, it is divided into a painting gallery, a collection of jewelry, a collection of wooden sculptural works, a Marian collection which renders the Virgin dressed in sundry vestments, a collection of contemporary works of sacred art, all complemented by miscellaneous collection which comprises items ranging from marble sculptures and ancient vestments to a lectionary. The highlights of the painting gallery refer to works by reputed artists like Luca Giordano, Tintoretto, Gregorio Lazzarini, Palma il Giovane, Antonio Zanchi, and Giannantonio Pellegrini.

The museum organizes temporary exhibitions of its own collections at sundry other venues in Venice, being, at its turn, home to various other temporary exhibitions of works of sacred art.

Name:
Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art of Venice (Museo Diocesano di Venezia)
Address:
5660, San Lio, Castello, 30122, Venice, Italy
Telephone:
0039 041 2771702
Fax:
0039 041 7241124
Email:
[email protected]
Website:
www.museodiocesanovenezia.it
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday: 10am to 12:30pm
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