Museo della Cattedrale

About the museum

The museum was founded in 1929 on the joint initiative of the Cathedral Chapter and the City of Ferrara, with the aim of gathering and showcasing the works that had enriched the city’s main church, seat of the bishop’s cathedra, over the centuries. In 2000 it moved to its present home, the former San Romano complex, where the church and the cloister house the exhibition rooms and the ticket office.

The collection, made up of heterogeneous materials, brings together rare and precious testimonies of Renaissance Ferrara. The route traces the history of the cathedral, founded around 1135: from the Months panels by the Master of the Months, which decorated the ancient Porta dei Pellegrini (Pilgrims’ Gate), now lost, to eighteenth-century reliquary busts that are still used in the main liturgical celebrations.

Among the most important works are Jacopo della Quercia’s “Madonna della melagrana” (Madonna of the Pomegranate), the monumental organ shutters painted by Cosmè Tura, a series of twenty-four illuminated choir books begun in 1481, and the tapestries with the Stories of Saints George and Maurelius, woven between 1551 and 1553 by Johannes Karcher to designs by Garofalo and Camillo Filippi.

Highlights

• Months panels by the Master of the Months, once on the cathedral’s Porta dei Pellegrini
• “Madonna della melagrana” (Madonna of the Pomegranate) by Jacopo della Quercia
• Organ shutters painted by Cosmè Tura
• Twenty-four illuminated choir books from 1481
• Tapestries with the Stories of Saints George and Maurelius

Permanent exhibition

• Collezione permanente del Museo della Cattedrale – Medieval and Renaissance works from the cathedral: Months panels, Jacopo della Quercia’s Madonna of the Pomegranate, Cosmè Tura’s organ shutters, choir books and tapestries.

Founded

1929

Operated by

Comune di Ferrara – Musei d'Arte Antica, in collaborazione con il Capitolo della Cattedrale

Visitors per year

approx. 19,550

Admission & discounts

Free admission: Free admission on the visitor’s birthday or, if the museum is closed that day, on the next day it opens.

Free admission also for holders of the MyFe Card, licensed tourist guides and journalists with a press card, first-year students of University of Ferrara courses who hold the entry qualification, and members of the clergy. The MyFe Card is Ferrara’s tourist card for the city’s museums and monuments.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

The museum’s website states that the museum is fully accessible.

Kids & families

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Getting there & parking

The museum is housed in the church of San Romano, in via San Romano, in Ferrara’s historic centre.

Amenities & dining

• Museum shop

Bookshop.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Plan your visit