MUSEUMS
IN MODENA
Museo Lapidario del
Duomo (Lapidarian Cathedral Museum):
is situated in Via Lanfranco at N°6, to the left of the
Cathedral. It preserves original pieces which adorned the
Cathedral and which were removed during the restoration works
carried out between the 19th and 20th Centuries. It preserves
material from the Roman era and furnishings and fittings fragments
from the earlier pre-Romanesque Church. The museum also conserves
eight medieval metope, forming part of the original decorations
of the Cathedral’s buttresses.
Museo Storico dell’Accademia Militare (Historical
Military Academy Museum):
is housed in the interior of the splendid Ducal Building,
a construction which comes from the beginning of 1630, incorporating
the nuclei of the ancient extended castle. Since 1862 the
Palazzo houses the Military Academy. It’s possible to
visit the magnificent rooms which represent the 17th Century.
In the room used as a museum, visitors can enjoy the relics
and testimonies conserved there, dating back to the Renaissance,
the First World War and from the Academy itself. There’s
also a room which is used as a shrine/sanctuary.
Il Palazzo dei Musei (Museum Building):
can be found in Largo Porta S. Agostino at the end of Via
Emilia. This construction, in the Mannerism style, was originally
the Augustine Convent, then was transformed in 1756 into an
Arsenal and in 1771 was re-arranged as a Hotel for the Poor
(Alms House). Since 1880 instead, it has housed the main cultural
institutes (now state or communal owned) of the City. The
Extensive Lapidarian Museum, the Civic Library of the Story
of Art “Luigi Poletti,” the Historical Communal
Archives, the Extensive Library, the Civic Museums, the Extensive
Gallery. The Gallery collections were enriched following the
legacy of Cardinal Alessandro d’Este in 1624 and then
on the merits of the patronage of Francesco I, Duke of Modena
between 1629 and 1659. In 1746 some of the collection’s
paintings were sold to the Great Constituent of Sassonia and
can now be found in the Dresda Gallery. During the 19th and
20th Centuries, the Gallery, which has been housed here since
1884, was enriched with numerous works through legacies, donations
and acquisitions. In this collection, there are representations
of main exponents of Emilian art, art from the Veneto area
and also some from the 13th Century Florentine to Baroque
era.
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