Collections

The objects on display here exemplify the care that the Mantuan Church has dedicated to the splendour of the liturgy over the centuries. The works on display date from the 13th to the 20th century, with a conspicuous group of 18th-century furnishings including masterpieces by Giovanni Bellavite and the capitular crosses donated by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.

Among other things, the room features a monumental gilded tabernacle and the large 17th-century wardrobe of the canons of the cathedral, used as a unique display; documentary portraits; a Madonna and Child by Alessandro Algardi; a series of astylar crosses, refined monstrances and the sumptuous pectoral cross of the abbot of Santa Barbara. No less valuable are the vestments: a dalmatic depicting the Joyful Mysteries, a Chinese work donated by St. Pius X, former bishop of Mantua; the mass vestment donated by Marquise Maria Teresa Peyri Cavriani to the church of Pozzolo; and an opulent cope made of gold and silver threads, made in Toledo by the famous Miguel Molero and brought to Mantua by the diocese's only Spanish bishop, Juan de Portugal de la Puebla.