Museo della Nobile Contrada dell'Oca

Museum of the Contrada dell’Oca in Siena with the 15th-century oratory of Santa Caterina, the Palio banners, historical costumes and the Salon of Memory.

Opening hours unknown

Website Directions

About the museum

The museum tells the story of the Contrada dell’Oca, one of the seventeen contrade of Siena, in the Fontebranda district. The route combines the 15th-century oratory, the museum of the Palio banners won by the contrada, historical costumes and the Salon of Memory dedicated to Ettore Fontani.

The oratory of Santa Caterina was built at the wish of the residents of Fontebranda, on the spot where the saint’s father, the dyer Jacopo Benincasa, carried on his trade. It houses a wooden statue by Neroccio di Bartolomeo de’ Landi from 1475 and fresco cycles by Sienese artists, including Il Sodoma, Giacomo Pacchiarotti, Girolamo del Pacchia, Vincenzo Tamagni, Ventura Salimbeni and Sebastiano Folli. The external façade dates from 1877.

The following rooms hold silverware and reliquaries, the wool guild room, the Risorgimento Room with 19th-century Palio relics, and the Hall of Victories, opened in 1901, where the banners are arranged in chronological order. The oldest banners, from 1789, and some uniforms from 1928–1955 are in the Chair Room and the Palio Gallery.

Highlights

15th-century oratory of Santa Caterina with a wooden statue by Neroccio di Bartolomeo (1475)
Frescoes by Il Sodoma, Pacchiarotti, Pacchia, Tamagni and Salimbeni
Hall of Victories with the banners won in the Palio
Historical costumes, uniforms and 19th-century Palio relics
Salon of Memory dedicated to Ettore Fontani