Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art
of the city and district
of Sarsina

Situated on the first floor of the building which was the residence of the bishops of Sarsina until 1976, the Museum is organized in four rooms, each one with a different subject. It includes a relevant collection of sacred paraments, liturgical objects and paintings, mostly coming from the area of the ex-diocese of Sarsina. All these objects have been rescued from deterioration, from vandalism and theft or they have been, in many cases, brought to this museum to be saved from the destruction and collapse of the churches or oratories where they were lodged. An example could be the wonderful collection of anicient bells which, however, has not found yet a suitable position inside the museum.

In the first two large rooms, we have two big showcases where a relevant collection of sacred vestments is conserved: chasubles, copes, mitres (simple, ornamented with gold or precious) mostly belonging to the bishops of Sarsina whose names can be found in the episcopal archives thanks to the escutcheons embroidered on the precious paraments (in particular those of Mons. Giovan Battista Mami, of Mons. Nicola Casali and of Mons. Pietro Balducci). Among these sacred vestments, that can be dated between the half of the XVIII and the half of the XIX century, the golden-ornamented mitre belonging to Mons. Giovanni Bernardino Vendemini (1733-1749) is the most ancient and precious piece.

From the first room we can enter a small hall which previously was a chapel and has been transformed into a picture-gallery. Here we have small masterpieces among which we would like to draw your attention on the small painting "Madonna with Child" (Madonna con Bambino): it comes from the church of Montesorbo (Mercato Saraceno) and it is attributed to Bartolomeo di Maestro Gentile from Urbino or to an artist who got the inspiration by an inlay work.
Besides, worth seeing are also the two wooden tablets, certainly coming from the Bologna area and dating back to the XVI century: here we have the representation of Saint Peter and Saint Petronio. This latter one, in the past was identified by mistake with Saint Vicinio, as we can read in the inscription under the figure who sustains the model of a town (Bologna).

In the last room, two big showcases show the visitors sacred silverware, liturgic objects which are not used anymore since the reform introduced by the Concilio Vaticano II, and artistic handiwork which survived the Napoleonic spoliations and belong to the XVIII-XIX century.