The territory
The game set includes the main points of interest in the territory of Spoleto and Valnerina. Among these, are the 11 museums partners of the Museum connections: between valleys and mountains, villages and cities project.
THE ROMAN HOUSE - SPOLETO
Dated to the 1st century AD., the Domus has the typical pattern of Roman patrician houses and still preserves beautiful floor mosaics. Inside the well of the house, was a fragmented inscription by one Polla with the dedication to Emperor Caligula. This finding suggested that the Domus was once owned by Vespasia Polla, mother of Emperor Vespasian. The house has a short corridor that gives access to the atrium, where was the impluvium mirroring the compluvium in the ceiling. Secondary rooms, called cubicula and decorated with beautiful mosaics, open at both sides of the corridor. The reception room of the house, the tablinum, is aligned with the atrium, flanked by two rooms decorated with mosaics – probably older than those on the other floors. On the right, arranged on an elevated floor, the triclinium partially preserves its pictorial decoration; to the left, a room leads to the inner garden, whose colonnade still shows some fragmentary columns.
COLLICOLA PALACE - SPOLETO
The palace, erected in the first half of the 18th century for the namesake noble family, now hosts the G. Carandente Gallery of Modern Art, where relevant works of modern and contemporary art are on display. On the first floor of the building, is the Noble Apartment, where it is still possible to admire some original elements of the 18th-century residence. The palace also hosts the Carandente Library, a collection of over 30,000 volumes on modern and contemporary art donated by the very Carandente.
THE MUSEUM OF FABRIC AND COSTUME - SPOLETO
The Museum, housed in the historic Rosari Spada Palace in Spoleto, gathers numerous textile artefacts of local, national, and international origin, dating back to the 14th up to the 20th century. The rich collection, mostly from donations, includes complete sacred vestments, dresses, and accessories (counting also a dress belonged to Alexandrine Bonaparte), as well as sections dedicated to “operati” and “alla Perugina” fabrics, typical of Umbrian popular culture. This museum is part of the Musei che hanno stoffa regional network.
THE OLD RAILWAY MUSEUM - SPOLETO
The objects, documents, and reproductions on display in the old train station of Spoleto depict the history of the first local railway connecting the city to Norcia, from 1926 to 1968. Although it no longer fulfils its original function, the railway line has been recently transformed into a pathway exploitable on foot or by bicycle.
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BASILICA of SAN SALVATORE - SPOLETO
The Church, since 2011 among the Longobardi in Italia: i luoghi del potere (568-774) UNESCO sites, records the precious Langobardic intervention on the pre-existing building dedicated to the thaumaturge Saints Concordio and Senzia. A characteristic of this Basilica is the extensive reuse of ancient material, especially from the classical period, for the decorative elements.
ROCCA ALBORNOZIANA - SPOLETO
The fortress, erected in 1359 on a project by Cardinal Egidio Albornoz, held a strategic function for the Pope’s authority over the region. Later, it became the residence of several famous figures in town, including Lucrezia Borgia, nominated regent of the Duchy of Spoleto in 1499. From 1816 to 1982, the building was adapted into prison, while, today, it hosts the National Museum of the Duchy.
MUST. THE EARTH SCIENCES LABORATORY - SPOLETO
The Earth Sciences Laboratory was founded in 1987 as an educational and scientific museum starting from the 19th-century collection of the Spoletan naturalist Francesco Toni. The collection consists of over 6000 items, including manuals, geological maps, and documents, collected for teaching purposes between 1867 and 1892. The museum, organized into different thematic sections, illustrates by geological eras rocks and fossils, ethnographic objects of the Neozoic era, minerals and marbles.
THE ROMAN THEATER - SPOLETO
The theatre, built in the 1st century BC, has been partially reused in later times. In early Middle Ages, both the church of Sant’Agata and Corvi Palace were erected on the theatre scene, while in the 14th century the corridors were adapted into prison. The theatre, eventually covered with soil, ended up as a cloister of the Benedictine monastery. Its Roman structure was rediscovered only in 1891, thanks to excavations conducted by the archaeologist Giuseppe Sordini. Today, the building next to the theatre hosts the National Archaeological Museum.
THE MUSEUM OF THE MINES - MORGNANO (SPOLETO)
The Morgnano Museum of the Mines was built on the old structure of the Pozzo Orlando, symbol and memory of the mining activities that for almost a century characterized the Spoletan region. It constitutes a unique and evocative setting for the events held during the year. The Museum offers visits to the exhibition guided by former miners, first witnesses of the mining work.
LA CASA DEI RACCONTI - VALLO DI NERA
La Casa dei Racconti in Vallo di Nera is a documentation centre for popular traditions. It hosts the “Closet of Memory”, a wooden structure created by the Sicilian sculptor Franco Pappalardo and equipped with drawers, shelves and containers, representing an impressive “anthology” of popular culture, rituals, traditions, and every-day values. The closet preserves several peculiar objects (about 1500 in total), such as seeds, berries, recipes, photographs, but even books, magazines, and VHS, left by the very citizens.
THE MUSEUM OF MUMMIES - CERRETO DI SPOLETO
The “Baronio Vincenzi” Documentation Center, located in the former church of Holy Jesus and Mary in Borgo Cerreto, hosts the Museum of Mummies. The museum displays a series of naturally mummified bodies, found in the church catacombs in 1959, in addition to evidence of the peculiar activity and life of Baronio Vincenzi, doctor and surgeon of Cerreto between the end of the 16th and early 17th centuries. Originally, it was Baronio himself who built the church of Holy Jesus and Mary as a private chapel for his burial.
CEDRAV (MUSEO DEL CIARLATANO) - CERRETO DI SPOLETO
The Museo del Ciarlatano, part of the Ecomuseum of the Umbrian Apennine, established and designed by Cedrav, is located in Cerreto di Spoleto in the Complex of San Nicola, a former Augustinian monastic settlement of Romanesque origin. The Museo del Ciarlatano relates the importance and peculiarity of the “ciarlatano” (charlatan) figure. The charlatans originally were beggars of Cerreto, the name in fact comes from the fusion of “Ciarlare” (to chat) and “Cerretano” (resident of Cerreto). They then began selling jewels, spices, and medical elixirs. The Museum also takes care of documenting the expressions of popular theatre and the street performances, encouraging re-elaborations and re-plays.
THE HEMP MUSEUM - SANT'ANATOLIA DI NARCO
Weaving, a typical activity of Valnerina, is at the heart of this Museum in Sant’Anatolia di Narco: here you can retrace all the stages of hemp processing and observe a rich collection of textile artefacts, dating back to the 18th up to the 20th century, partly donated by the villagers themselves.
The weaving workshop which, with educational purposes, offers the opportunity to try one’s hand at this art, is part of the Museum itself.
The Museum belongs to the Musei che hanno stoffa regional network.
THE ABBEY OF SAINTS FELICE and MAURO - SANT'ANATOLIA DI NARCO
The Abbey of Saints Felice and Mauro, built in the 12th century in Castel San Felice (Sant’Anatolia di Narco) on top of an earlier building, revives the memory of the two Syriac monks who, according to the tradition, defeated the dragon that infested the area in the 6th century.
The legend is represented on the bas-relief adorning the church front, the remains of the Saints lay in the crypt.
The dragon is the personification of the diseases caused by the swampy area, reclaimed following the two monks’ arrival.
THE MUSEUM OF THE BIGA - MONTELEONE DI SPOLETO
A former Franciscan convent houses the Museum of the Biga in Monteleone. It displays a life-size copy of the so-called “Etruscan chariot”, realised in 1985 by the School of the Master Manzù. In 1902, by chance, Isidoro Vannozzi from Monteleone found the original 6th-century biga in a tumulus-tomb in the location of “Colle del Capitano”. The chariot was completely intact, in wood, gilded bronze and ivory, with historiated parapets displaying scenes of Achilles’ myth from the Iliad. The original chariot was secretly expatriated and eventually sold to the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1903.
ANCIENT CONVENT OF S. CATERINA - MONTELEONE DI SPOLETO
In the 14th century, Augustinian nuns arrived from Norcia in Monteleone di Spoleto and built a monastery dedicated to Saint Catherine. The convent, renovated in the early 18th century after an earthquake, was suppressed in 1866. The nuns were forced to move to Cascia, and the building progressively fell into disrepair: only the perimeter walls remain today.