Museum

The museum is named after one of the most notable members of the noble family that ruled over the Mantuan territory from 1328 to 1707, the venerable bishop, Friar Francesco Gonzaga. He was born in 1546 in Gazzuolo, of which his father Carlo held the seigniory; orphaned at an early age, he was in Madrid, in the retinue of King Philip II of Spain, when he matured the decision to become a monk, entering the Franciscan order where he changed his original name of Hannibal to Francesco. Highly esteemed by his brethren, at only 32 years of age he was elected Minister General of the entire order, to which he imprinted a profound renewal according to the letter and spirit of the Council of Trent. He brought the same renewal to the diocese of Cefalù, of which he became bishop, and later to that of Mantua, which he ruled from 1593 until his death in 1620. Here, among other things, he founded the seminary for the training of priests, reorganised charity institutions, founded churches and convents, and completed the decoration of the cathedral with a grandiose cycle of frescoes, new altars, tapestries and refined furnishings. Others he obtained in Paris, where he was sent as papal nuncio for two years and where he succeeded in reconciling France and Spain (Peace of Vervins, 1598). His tireless activity, his personal poverty (even as a bishop he continued to wear the humble Franciscan habit) and the other virtues of which he gave constant proof have led to the start of the process for his beatification, which has now reached the stage that recognises him as Venerable. The cathedral's tapestries and valuable works of goldsmithing that he commissioned can now be admired in the museum, which is named after him because of this, and generally because of his love for sacred art.