Museo Diocesano - Sezione Bari, Bari

After visiting the ancient and evocative "San Sabino Cathedral" in the heart of the old town, the tourist looking for novelty and ideas will be able to admire the adjacent "Palazzo della Curia": a real urban island in whose courtyard stands the beautiful "Spire" with the statue of the Saint. This large complex-"modernised" in Baroque style in the first half of ' 700 Neapolitan architect George V-hosts, since 1981, the seat of the "Museo Diocesano" barese. The exhibition-extremely rich and varied--winds through the succession of the halls on the first floor of the Palace and bears witness to the history of the "Cathedral", from early medieval to the present day. By early Christian, medieval, Byzantines, Lombards sculptural artifacts housed in the "Lapidarium" the wonderful Russian icons-many Czarist-era ...-the pride of the Collection "Fash"; from paintings by Tintoretto, Veronese and many other artists of the ' 500 stored in the "Pinacoteca" to valuable liturgical artifacts and vestments of every age ... everything is a succession of surprises and masterpieces that fill us with admiration and astonishment, until we lose track of time. In this context, it stands out because of the "exceptional and important halls of the Exultet and the book of blessings": a real "heart" in the exhibition. There are indeed espisti 11th-century parchment scrolls liturgical-finely illuminated and illustrated with figures of Byzantine inspiration-that the celebrants used to unroll the "ABCD", during special liturgies. The "curiosity" stems from the fact that the images are flipped relative to text and, consequently, even compared to the priest in charge of declamarlo. In this way though i fedeli-although they can not read or understand the text in Latin because illiterate or functionally illiterate--they could anticipate the content by browsing through the images that depicted. A bit like the paintings on the walls of the churches that were-at the time-a sort of "Holy Scripture" exhibited at the immediate understanding of the faithful! On my part, only one advice: set aside two or three hours of your itinerary ... and don't miss it!

A nice trip to the past bari and ecclesiastical sacred objects and original documentation by centuries of history. Entrance with free offer.

One is really surprised by this jewel set in the old town, large and full of ecclesiastical history