Museo di San Pietro – Ex Conservatorio

The Museum of San Pietro, now housed in the former conservatory of the same name, is the result of the merger of 4 different collections: the Civic and Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art, the Collection of the Conservatory of San Pietro, the Romano Bilenchi Collection and the Walter Fusi. After the necessary restoration works in 2017, the Museum of San Pietro opened its doors to the public, giving back to the Colligiana community in a definitive and unified way a great history made of art, faith and people. The exhibition itinerary tells the story of this city through the major expressions of art, through a constant dialogue between religiosity and civic ambition typical of medieval towns. Conceived from a chronological point of view, the museum narrative, which is spread over 2,000 square meters with a body of over 200 works on display, proceeds in distinct sections by a suggestive palette of colors and a game of lettering that refers to the era represented with minimal and neutral furnishings so as not to overshadow internal works and architecture. The visit to the Museum begins on the first floor with the exhibition of sacred works of art that tell the journey of faith in the Valdelsa, from its origins to the birth of the Diocese of Colle (1592). It continues in the following rooms where there are the civic collections that date back to the 19th and 20th centuries, where the works of the Colligiani painters Antonio Salvetti and Walter Fusi are kept. The itinerary ends with a section entirely dedicated to the collection of Romano Bilenchi, one of the most important Italian writers and intellectuals of the second post-war period. Here you will find a precious selection chosen from the extensive library of the intellectual from Colle which is joined by the works of Ottone Rosai, Moses Levy and Mino Maccari. The collection of the Museum of San Pietro offers a wide and precious panorama of artistic production in Valdelsa from the sixth to the twentieth century, ranging from fine early medieval manufactures through spectacular altarpieces, crucifixes, sculptures and capitals to the most recent Macchiaioli paintings.

The Monastery

The monastery of San Pietro was built between 1603 and 1606 by the will of the grand-ducal secretary and bishop of Arezzo Pietro Usimbardi (brother of Usimbardo, bishop of Colle) who entrusted the task to the architect Giorgio Vasari the Younger. The project included on the ground floor a cloister with loggias, a church, parlors combined with common areas and rooms for daily work, while on the upper floor the cells, the dormitory, the wardrobe and the abbess’s room were placed. The Colle monastery project represents one of the rare works completed by the Young Vasari, better known for his theoretical rather than practical attitudes. The monastery, as an Augustinian rule, initially welcomed 22 girls ready to become nuns with an annual income guaranteed by the founder. At the end of the eighteenth century the monastery was transformed into a women’s conservatory and from that moment on it had an educational function for internal boarders and external students. Before becoming the prestigious seat of the San Pietro Museum, it hosted the master’s schools.

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