Feltre's New Diocesan Museum Opens in Medieval Bishop's Castle

The new Museo Diocesano di Feltre e Belluno has opened in a medieval castle built by bishops around the mid-13th century. The diocese initiated the restoration in the early 2000s to house sacred art from the Veneto town and surrounding Dolomite valleys. The collection spans from the early Middle Ages (with artifacts in the cellars) to contemporary works, including a site-specific piece by Mimmo Paladino and works by Arnaldo Pomodoro and other 20th-century local masters. The museum's 27 rooms, many marked by bishops Jacopo Rovellio or Tommaso Campeggi, display works thematically to guide visitors through a fragmented corpus. Highlights include the silver chalice of Deacon Orso, the oldest Eucharistic chalice in the West, and a group of the Four Evangelists supporting the celestial sphere by Andrea Brustolon (1662-1732), a Baroque wood sculptor from Belluno. Paintings by Tintoretto (a Madonna with Child for the Augustinians of Ognissanti in Feltre) and Sebastiano Ricci (two canvases from the church of Vedana and a Nativity) are also featured. The building itself is a layered palimpsest, with ancient spaces intersecting with newer ones, and the display enhances both objects and surviving architectural decorations.