MUSEO DI SANTA GIULIA

Unique in Italy and in Europe in terms of exhibition concept and location, the City Museum, housed in a monastery complex of Lombard origin, allows a journey through Brescia's history, art and spirituality from prehistoric times to the present day in an exhibition area of approximately 14,000 square metres. A female monastery of Benedictine rule, built by the last Lombard king Desiderius and his wife Ansa in 753 A.D., San Salvatore - Santa Giulia played a leading role - religious, political and economic - even after the defeat inflicted on the Lombards by Charlemagne. A place of historical memories stratified over the centuries and a continuous source of surprising discoveries, the monastic complex is a visible interweaving of epochs. Built on an area already occupied in Roman times by important Domus, it includes the Lombard basilica of San Salvatore and its crypt, the Romanesque oratory of Santa Maria in Solario, the Nuns' Choir, the 16th-century church of Santa Giulia and the cloisters. An area destined, therefore, almost by vocation, to host the City Museum, which rightly proposes itself as the fulcrum of the itinerary of visits to Brescia. The element that characterises and makes the museum so special is the very close link between the 'container' and the objects on display. At present, Santa Giulia's 'treasure chest' consists of about 11,000 items: Celtic artefacts such as helmets and scythes, Roman portraits and bronzes, Longobard evidence, grave goods, mosaics and frescoes. The symbol of the city is the Winged Victory, the large bronze from the Capitolium, the subject of recent investigations that have shed new light on the history of ancient art and life in Brixia.