The Pinacoteca comunale of Cesena is a gallery of ancient, modern and contemporary art, housed since 1984 in the former convent of San Biagio.
What to see
The works on display span the period from the fifteenth century to the contemporary age and give an overview of local painting, enriched by some works of national importance. Among the artists are Guercino, Francesco Francia, Bartolomeo Passarotti, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Girolamo Forabosco, Vittorio Matteo Corcos, Renato Guttuso, Mario Schifano, Alberto Sughi, Giulio Turcato and others; the sources mention among the works Guercino's St Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Piazzetta's Sacrifice of Iphigenia and a Portrait of a Young Musician by Passarotti.
Room 1, the central space, houses the oldest paintings, from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century; Room 2, on the left, the canvases of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Room 3, on the right, is the contemporary art section named after Luigi Veronesi, made up of works left by artists and recent acquisitions. The collection of paintings owned by the municipality was formed between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries following the Napoleonic and post-unification suppressions, then through acquisitions from the Congregazione di Carità and from private collections; after a first display in a few rooms of the Biblioteca Malatestiana, in 1883, there were provisional arrangements, and only since 1984 has the collection been permanently displayed in the former convent.
Visiting
The pinacoteca is in the former convent of San Biagio, in Cesena. The sources consulted give neither hours nor tickets: these should be checked on the museum's official website, published by the Comune di Cesena.
Our editors' tip
In the same city, on the first floor of the local seat of Crédit Agricole Italia, the Galleria dei dipinti antichi of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cesena gathers more than eighty works, mostly of the Emilian and Romagna schools, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century: the museum route has existed since 1991 and is conceived as a public museum with free access, but hours and conditions should be checked.
