MUSEO DI SANTA GIULIA

Unique in Italy and Europe in terms of exhibition concept and location, the City Museum is set up in a monastery complex of Longobard origin. The route allows a journey through the history, art and spirituality of Brescia, from prehistoric times to the present day, in an area of approximately 14,000 square metres.

The women's monastery of Benedictine rule was erected in 753 A.D. by the last Lombard king, Desire, and his wife Ansa. The complex of San Salvatore - Santa Giulia played a leading role - religious, political and economic - even after the defeat of the Lombards by Charlemagne.

A place of layered historical memories and a continuous source of discoveries, the complex is a visible interweaving of epochs:

• Built on an area already occupied in Roman Age by important Domus;
• It includes the Lombard basilica of San Salvatore with its crypt;
• It hosts the’Romanesque oratory of Santa Maria in Solariothe Nun's Choir, the 16th-century church of Santa Giulia and cloisters.

What makes this museum extraordinary is the close link between “container” and exhibits. Currently, the “treasure chest” of Santa Giulia holds about 11,000 piecesCeltic artefacts (such as helmets and sickles), Roman portraits and bronzes, Lombard evidence, grave goods, mosaics and frescoes.

The true symbol of the city remains the Winged Victory, the large bronze from the Capitolium, recently the subject of investigations that have shed new light on the history of ancient art and the life of ancient Brixia.