Museum of Sacred Art of Misterbianco
The Museum of Sacred Art of Misterbianco collects the main artistic-religious testimonies produced in the territory, starting from the first urban nucleus, built around the Monasterio register dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie and the archaeological site in the district now known as Campanarazzu.
The museum environment is housed in the crypt of the The Mother Church which is accessed by a small road that runs alongside it on its eastern side. The difference in height between the entrance to the church and the access to the museum was created in the mid-19th century, when most of the Italian roads were leveled for the free circulation of carriages, so that today the ancient crypt is at the level road.
The museum has five exhibition rooms located along a path created below the town mother church. The entrance was created along the reinforcement walls of the crypt and was decorated with a salvaged portal dating back to the 19th century. The breach created immediately led to the ossuary, which was adapted to an exhibition environment. The room is closed by a barrel vault and ending with an apse. To the south you enter the second room, formerly a mortuary chapel, located exactly below the dome begun in 1835. This is communicating to the south with the church through the central staircase, once closed by a trap door and today covered by a protective glass window. while to the north, on the sides of the chapel, there are two entrances to the third room, consisting of the ancient colander. Halfway between these two rooms there is access to a fourth room, discovered by chance during the renovation works, which, before the entrance from the church was walled up, had an independent access and was intended for the burial of the canons only. The breach to access it has altered the curvature of the original apse, but has allowed its adaptation to an exhibition environment. The fifth room then closes, entirely modern since it was obtained from the emptying of the foundations of a small room leaning against the mother church. Divided into spans by massive concrete arches, the services are located here.
The layout of the museum follows a partly chronological and partly thematic principle for the display of the finds, including reliquaries and monstrances in silver from the Messina and Acese schools of the 16th and 17th centuries. Among others, the reliquaries with the relics of San Vito and those of Sant'Antonio Abate are preserved.
Info and useful links: https://monasteriumalbum.it/contatti-e-orari
