The Museum of Sacred Art of the basilica of Santa Maria Assunta was set up in 2010 in the rooms of Alcamo's mother church, on the initiative of the archpriest Antonino Treppiedi and at the wish of the Bishop of Trapani, with museum design advice from Professor Maurizio Vitella. It occupies the former oratory of the Santissimo Sacramento attached to the basilica: 150 works in about 400 square metres, including painting, sculpture and goldsmiths' work from the thirteenth to the twentieth century, from the churches of Alcamo.
What to see
The works had been gathered and sheltered after the Belice earthquake of 1968, which left many churches unusable, by Monsignor Vincenzo Regina, archpriest of Alcamo from 1944 to 1991. Among the pieces on show is the Madonna della Provvidenza, also called the Madonna of the Pomegranate, in alabaster-like marble, from the late fifteenth century and attributed to Pietro de Bonitate; it probably comes from the church of Santa Maria della Stella, demolished in 1964.
There are also a crucifix from the first half of the sixteenth century on an eighteenth-century silver cross, the Madonna of the Rosary with saints attributed to Vincenzo da Pavia, Mannerist canvases by Gaspare Vazzano, known as lo Zoppo di Gangi, including the Madonna crowned with Saints Vitus and Bartholomew of 1612, nineteenth-century canvases by Giuseppe Patania, wooden statues of Saints Leonard, Roch and Sebastian, an illuminated antiphonary in several volumes and a gilded sedan for the viaticum with paintings attributable to Vito D'Anna. A tempera by Sebastiano Bagolino tells of the finding of the image of the Madonna dei Miracoli.
Visiting
Besides these works the museum shows sculptures, architectural fragments, vestments, liturgical books and gold and silver jewellery. Opening times and tickets should be checked with the basilica.
Our editors' tip
Look for the monastic communion window in gilded wood with its seventeenth-century iron grille: it was the small opening through which cloistered nuns received communion.
