Diocesan Museum

The cultural centre of the diocese of Chioggia consists of the Diocesan Library, the Diocesan Archive and the Diocesan Museum.

The Diocesan Museum, stands next to the cathedral church and the episcope, with entrance from the “Sagrato” area. The “U” building, built at the end of the 90s, designed by architect R. Ravagnan, is grafted to the bishop's palace, covering with the inner cloister part of what was already the tomb of the cathedral.Dedicated to the martyrs Felice and Fortunato, patrons of the diocese, presents a path that the architect bodybuilder C. Rebeschini has divided into four sections.

The southern wing, flanked by the entrance, houses the historical section consists of a sequence of testimonies on the past of the diocesan community from the beginning of the 4th century (martyrdom of Saints Felice and Fortunato) to the Twentieth century (Vatican Council II)

The WESTERN WING, is reserved for the iconographic section. There are works that, starting from the 14th century (Paolo Veneziano), arrive at the 18th century (A. Martinetti), passing through masterpieces of Cima from Conegliano, Palma il Vecchio, A. Vicentino, M.A. Franceshini and A. Brustolon.

The NORTHERN WING exhibits a wide range of reliquaries and liturgical furnishings, coming from the diocese and from the “Creuso donation”. Particularly valuable are the goldsmith's of the cathedral , the Jubilee Chalice of Blessed Pope Pius IX (1877) and the silver chalice sent by Pope John Paul II to the Diocesan Museum.There is also a review of devotional objects with “tolele”, sea cases, lace, as a testimony of the popular piety of the coastal people.

In the ORIENTAL WING, (ground floor of the

'episcope) close the path of the “room of Christian initiation” with golden woods of an ancient apparatus for the forty hours and a partial exhibition of the graphic and pictorial work of the artist Chioggiotto Aristide Naccari (1848-1914) .We highlight the cycle of studies on the Chapel of the Rosary in the church of Saints John and Paul in Venice and that on the urn of Saints Felice and Fortunato in the cathedral of Chioggia.

Our thanks to Don Giuliano Marangon, “Testo CLODIACOM” Sandro Varagnolo