MUSEO DEL DUOMO

The Cathedral Museum was opened in 1953 by the art critic Ugo Nebbia, but the idea
took shape in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when it became necessary to find
a way of keeping together and preserving the huge amount of material connected with
the history and construction of the Cathedral. In 1948 the Fabbrica del Duomo obtained
the concession from the State Property Department for nine rooms located on the ground
floor of the oldest wing of Palazzo Reale, formerly the residence of the Visconti and Sforza
families, renovated by the architect Piermarini in the second half of the eighteenth
century. At last suitable premises were available to house and exhibit the works to be
preserved, which had significantly increased in number after the damage caused by the
bombing in the Second World War. The deterioration of many works of art, caused by
atmospheric pollution, and the influx of further material from the Fabbrica storerooms
and the Cathedral vestries soon made a larger exhibition area necessary.