The diocesan museum of sacred art in Susa was inaugurated on 22 September 2000, promoted by bishop Vittorio Bernardetto and built to a design by the architect Maria Pia Dal Bianco. It occupies five rooms of the Rettoria over two floors, beside the church of the Madonna del Ponte, one of the town's baroque monuments. It is the central seat of the diocesan museum system of the Susa valley, with detached sections at Melezet di Bardonecchia, Giaglione, Novalesa and San Giorio di Susa.
What to see
The first room displays the treasure of the cathedral and of the church of the Madonna del Ponte, with works ranging from the seventh to the twentieth century: among them the Months of the Year, a thirteenth-century fresco detached from the canonry of the old Santa Maria Maggiore, a fourteenth-century processional cross by Johannes Bos Zuinich and a rayed monstrance of Piedmontese make. The second room, which was the sacristy and choir of the church, gathers vestments and the paintings commissioned by the confraternity of the Holy Spirit. The third and fourth are given to the goldsmith work that came from the valley parishes, and the fifth to contemporary sacred art.
Visiting
Among the goldsmith work are two pieces that come from the cathedral of San Giusto: two bronze knockers with the heads of a lion and a bull, of Lombard-Piedmontese workshop, cast around 1130, which used to be on the portal. Then there is the Madonna del Ponte, a twelfth-century wooden sculpture of Franco-Piedmontese workshop, and two more wooden sculptures brought down from the upper valley, the Madonna della Neve from Vazon di Oulx and a God the Father from Bousson. The museum also keeps the Breviary of San Michele della Chiusa of 1315, bought back on the market after the library of the Sacra had been dispersed.
Our editors' tip
The piece to look for is the Rocciamelone triptych, in bronze, dated 1358 and attributed to Jean de Bondol. It is not a work that was merely preserved: it is an ex voto that Bonifacio Roero carried on his back to the summit of the Rocciamelone, at 3538 metres, and that stayed up there for about three centuries, exposed to the frost and the wind of the peak before coming down to the valley. Look at it knowing where it has been. Then step outside and raise your eyes: the mountain that towers over Susa from the north is that one.