Diocesan Museum of Pavia

• Name — Diocesan museum of Pavia • Native Name — Museo diocesano di Pavia • Location — Piazza del Duomo, 27100, Pavia PV, Italy • Type — Art museum and Historic site • Public Transit — Pavia railway station • Website — www.diocesi.pavia.it/museo-diocesano

The diocesan museum of Pavia represents an evocative place with a dual soul, because it is aimed on the one hand at the faithful to whom it offers evidence of the birth of a religious community starting from its roots, on the other at visitors interested in the historical-artistic and architectural elements present in it. The museum is located inside the remains of the crypt of Santa Maria del Popolo, one of the two ancient Romanesque cathedrals destroyed at the end of the 15th century to make way for the current cathedral. In fact, the current Cathedral stands on the site of the two pre-existing "twin" cathedrals, united and communicating, of Santo Stefano (summer) and Santa Maria del Popolo (winter). The two original churches were founded between the 6th and 7th centuries and then rebuilt, in Romanesque style, between the 11th and 12th centuries. Santo Stefano had a façade similar to that of the basilica San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, but with three portals, while Santa Maria del Popolo had a single portal and its façade was enriched by lines of white, green and blue glazed bricks (partly now preserved in the Civic Museums), among the oldest Italian (and European) examples of majolica. Santo Stefano consisted of five naves with rib vaults, unlike Santa Maria del Popolo which only had three. The two cathedrals were progressively deconsecrated and demolished as the construction site of the Duomo progressed, so much so that of the two churches only a section of the lateral wall of Santo Stefano along via Omodeo and part of the crypt of Santa Maria del Popolo survive, which, restored in 2004, now houses the diocesan museum. • Illustration — Fragments of the floor mosaics of the two Romanesque cathedrals (XI-XII century). • Illustration — Crypt of Santa Maria del Popolo (first half of the 11th century). • Illustration — Sicilian-Arab master, crosier, ivory (12th century).