Museo Aurelio Castelli

Sacred art museum next to the Basilica dell'Osservanza in Siena, with paintings, illuminated choir books, reliquaries and vestments from the convents.

Opening hours unknownFree admission

Directions

About the museum

The museum is named after Father Aurelio Castelli, who gathered the works scattered after the Napoleonic suppression of the convents. It is housed in rooms adjoining the Basilica dell'Osservanza, built at the wish of St Bernardino of Siena in the early 15th century, and occupies a wing overlooking a convent courtyard, opened by a late 15th-century loggia with a view over Siena.

On display are paintings, sculptures, prints, seals, illuminated works and choir books belonging to the basilica. The route complements a visit to the church, which itself holds important works of art.

Among the most important pieces are the tomb slab of Niccolò Piccolomini from 1476, attributed to Antonio Federighi; seventeen illuminated choir books made in the convent's scriptorium in the 15th century by Fra Giovanni da Siena and Fra Jacopo Torelli; the reliquary of St Bernardino by the goldsmith Francesco d'Antonio (1462); vestments from the 15th to 17th centuries; and the treatise De animalibus by Albertus Magnus, from the 13th century. On the back wall is the fresco of the Last Judgement by Girolamo Benvenuti.

Highlights

Tomb slab of Niccolò Piccolomini (1476)
Seventeen illuminated choir books from the 15th century
Reliquary of St Bernardino by Francesco d'Antonio (1462)
Last Judgement fresco by Girolamo Benvenuti
De animalibus treatise by Albertus Magnus

Permanent exhibition

Collezione di arte sacra dell'Osservanza – Paintings, sculptures, illuminated choir books, reliquaries and vestments from the convent and the suppressed convents.

Founded: 2000