Photo: Matteo Tani · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Museo di Palazzo Pretorio

Museum of Peccioli housed in the Palazzo Pretorio: Russian icons from the Bigazzi collection, bronze crosses and a collection of artists’ prints.

Opening hoursFree admission

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About the museum

The museum is housed in the Palazzo Pretorio in Peccioli, a medieval building remodelled in the 18th and 19th centuries. It opened in 2000 under the name Museo di icone russe “Francesco Bigazzi” and is considered the first museum in Italy dedicated to this type of art.

The original core is the collection donated by journalist Francesco Bigazzi, made up of around sixty Russian icons dating from the 18th to the early 20th century. In 2007 the collection of Belvedere S.p.A. was added, with wooden icons from the Orthodox world and a section devoted to bronze crosses and icons, including a 15th-century baptismal cross.

The collection was later expanded by the Berger donation of 2020, consisting of 51 bronze icons and one bone icon from the 17th to the 19th century, largely linked to the tradition of the Old Believers. The museum also holds the donation of Vito Merlini, received in 2006, with 279 prints – engravings, lithographs, woodcuts and screen prints by mostly Italian artists of the 20th century.

Highlights

Bigazzi collection of Russian icons from the 18th to the early 20th century
Belvedere collection of wooden icons and bronze crosses
Berger donation of bronze icons
Merlini donation of 279 artists’ prints
Balcone sui Tetti (rooftop balcony) with views of the bell tower and the village

Permanent exhibition

Icone russe e raccolte d’arte – The Bigazzi, Belvedere and Berger collections of icons and bronze crosses, alongside the Merlini donation of engravings, lithographs and screen prints.

Founded: 2000
Operated by: Fondazione Peccioliper