MUSEO CRISTIANO

A must-see if you are visiting Cividale. The Museo Cristiano, the museum of Christianity, is housed in the former presbytery of the cathedral. On the first floor, it houses the large octagonal baptistery of the patriarch Callisto (8th century), decorated with bas-reliefs, the altar of Duke Ratchis (8th century), a patriarchal pulpit and detached frescoes from the tempietto longobardo. Among these works, the highlight is the altar of Ratchis, a huge stone rectangle carved on all sides with magnificent religious representations. The flat relief is fine and neat, the figures are naive and animated. This work is exceptional because the artistic vestiges left by the Lombards remain rare. A thesis has been devoted to finding the original colors and natural pigments that decorated it. And you will not fail to be amazed by the projection of a video that gradually restores the original colors, as if the work was being done ... At the end, the oratory is shimmering with bright colors, with gold leaf inlays and even glassware. In a second time, the luminosity weakens to evoke what the faithful saw, at the time, in the light of the candles. The museum continues on two floors, the first with a small collection of paintings, the second with liturgical vestments that testify to the wealth that was the church. But we only want to go back downstairs to see the stone pulpit again.