Also in May, and precisely on Sunday 5th, the initiative returns “Sunday at the Museum” promoted by the Ministry of Culture. The initiative involves Italian state museums which will be open to visitors with free admission.
The visits will take place during the usual opening hours, with access by reservation, where applicable. The last meeting, Sunday 7 April 2024, recorded a turnout of 365,187 people. Let’s find out those who join the initiative in the province of Pavia.
(Cover photo: Certosa di Pavia, small cloister)
Museums to visit for free in Pavia
Among the many museums in Lombardy that can be found visit for free on Sunday 5 May 2024, in the province of Pavia there are, as always, the Monumental Complex and the Museum of the Certosa di Pavia, the National Archaeological Museum of Lomellina in Vigevano but also the Archaeological Museum of Casteggio and Oltrepò Pavese in Casteggio.
The Certosa museum
Along the southern side of the courtyard in front of the facade of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, there is the Palazzo Ducale, the ancient summer residence of the Visconti-Sforza dynasty and guesthouse for high-ranking guests, today the prestigious seat of the Certosa Museum.
The Certosa Museum displays works of art from the Certosa di Pavia, including fourteenth-century frescoes, paintings by Luini and other artists, Renaissance sculptures and a collection of nineteenth-century plaster casts reproducing architectural details. Among the works on display is the Studiolo Ducale, frescoed with Roman motifs.
The building, modified in 1625 by an intervention on the facade by the architect Francesco Maria Richini, it presents a linear succession of windows between half-columns which give elegance and brightness to the entire structure. The first idea for the establishment of a Certosa Museum was launched at the Ministry of Public Education in 1883 by the Milanese architect Tito Vespasiano Paravicini, a well-known author of books on Lombard Renaissance architecture, who carried out an initial accurate survey of the Carthusian façade.
The actual construction of the Museum (on two floors) is due to Luca Beltrami, Director of the Regional Office for the Conservation of Monuments in Lombardy since 1891 and who, since 1892, had had the first nucleus of a museum created, with the sculptures of Bambaia, the series of drawings for the façade of the Certosa, theEcce Homo by Bramantinoand a first group of casts made by Pietro and Edoardo Pierrotti in the second half of the 19th century, derived from the Renaissance masterpieces of the facade, from capitals and pilasters of the cloisters.
The Museum was first opened to the public in 1911, and then remained closed for more than half a century. The plaster cast gallery that collects more than 200 large and small casts is unique not only in Lombardy, but also in the Italian panorama.
Starting from the month of May and until August 2024, the access times to Church of the Certosa di Pavia follow the following times: Morning entry from 9.00 to 11.30; Afternoon admission: from 2.30pm to 6pm. From 11.30am to 2.30pm visits are suspended and there is no possibility of entering the complex. Remember to wear decent clothing suitable for a church in which animals are not allowed and it is not possible to take photographs without the specific permission of the Cistercian monks who manage the monumental complex. The opening hours of the Certosa di Pavia Museum almost coincide with those of visiting the Monument. For more information you can call 0382.924990 or by email to [email protected].
National archaeological museum of Lomellina
Opened in 1998, the National Archaeological Museum of Lomellina is located inside the Visconti-Sforza Castle of Vigevano. It collects archaeological evidence from excavations or occasional recoveries in the area. The museum itinerary, ordered chronologically, is divided into four permanent exhibition rooms and an exhibition space.
The first room collects the evidence from the prehistoric and protohistoric erafrom the Mesolithic to the late La Tène culture (from the 5th millennium BC to the 2nd century BC).
In the second, some funerary objects from the Roman era are displayed (from the mid-1st century BC to the end of the 2nd AD) while the third illustrates some aspects of daily life in Roman times.
The fourth room houses finds from the Late Antique and Early Middle Ages (3rd-9th century AD). Lomellina is an archaeologically rich and culturally well-defined territory. The discoveries, mostly random, are linked to works of intensive exploitation of the territory, in particular to the leveling of land for the creation of rice paddies.
While for the prehistoric era the traces of population are scarce and sporadic, the documentation becomes progressively more abundant for the subsequent Bronze and Iron Ages, in which the Celtic culture was established, and above all for the Roman age, while it decreases for the late antique and early medieval eras. Among the most significant finds of particular note – for the refinement of the shapes and the pleasantness of the colors – glass pottery, present in abundance in Roman funerary objects.
For more information you can call 0381.72940 or send an email to [email protected].
Archaeological Museum of Casteggio and Oltrepò Pavese
The Civic Archaeological Museum of Casteggio and Oltrepo Pavese was founded in 1974, by the will of a group of local enthusiasts and the Municipal Administration, after the important discovery of two Roman tombs in via Torino. The current Museum is the result of a further expansion, made possible by the completion of the restoration of Palazzo Certosa in 1999. Thanks to a new agreement stipulated between the Municipality of Casteggio and the Archaeological Superintendency of Lombardy, it was possible to acquire the material coming from the most recent excavations carried out in the Oltrepo Pavese. The Museum is made up of four sections: geology and paleontology, prehistory and protohistory, the Roman, late ancient and medieval periods, and the collections.
The Archaeological Museum of Casteggio is located in via Circonvallazione Cantù 62 – Tel. 0383 83941 – [email protected]
