Type:

Luoghi della cultura; Ente/Istituzione

Category:

Museums

Madonna della Sbarra Museum The Museo della Madonna della Sbarra is hosted inside the homonymous Church, which stands right outside the burgh of Panicale, along the road going down towards Lake Trasimeno. This Church was built in 1625 to shelter a sacred image of the Virgin Mary, discovered in the 16th century, where the old custom station with its trade barrier—a bar that in Italian is called "sbarra"—used to be, right on the passageway. The sacred image was therefore called Madonna della Sbarra, and the later built temple inherited this name too. As demanded by the townspeople, the church is still under Municipal care, which still preserves the old accounting books that go up to 1860 in the archives. Its façade, made of red bricks with pilasters in white sandstone, is in Tuscan style. In the interior, the church has a three-nave structure, in Baroque style. Worth mentioning is the central altar, covered by stucco decorations it is surmounted by four gilded angels supporting a tympana, which holds the old fresco depicting the Virgin inside. The building hosts a conspicuous collection of furnishings and liturgical vestments, donated by the generous devotion of the townspeople. The rich donation served to decorate the main altar and the other four lateral ones during every liturgical period. There is also a Madonna wooden sculpture, which has various clothes of different colors, to be used following the appropriate liturgical requirements, and a number of chalices, patens, turibles of various forms, monstrance and reliquaries.