The Museum of Spirituality of the Suppentonia Valley preserves an exceptional collection of sacred vestments, textiles, liturgical footwear and devotional objects connected with the religious history of Castel Sant’Elia.
A collection preserved through the centuries
The sacred vestments of Castel Sant’Elia became widely known at the 1896 exhibition of sacred art in Orvieto, although municipal archive records already document them in 1643. In 1740 the collection was kept in the parish church of Sant’Antonio Abate.
In the early 20th century Cardinal Antonio Doebbing recovered the vestments from a chest beneath the high altar, arranged their restoration and displayed them in glass-fronted cupboards. In 1923 the heritage authorities identified the need for more suitable spaces, and the Municipality equipped a room as a Civic Museum.
The collection was moved again in 1937. During the Second World War it was protected in the Vatican deposits and returned to Castel Sant’Elia in 1945. It is now housed in rooms provided by the religious community responsible for the Sanctuary of Santa Maria ad Rupes.
Highlights of the collection
The catalogue includes 12th- and 13th-century linen albs and silk dalmatics, chasubles in red, blue, yellow and natural linen, two medieval mitres, Coptic textile fragments, a 16th-century altar frontal, three pairs of liturgical shoes, and a 12th–13th-century wooden reliquary covered with bronze sheet and coloured stones.
The group is completed by a silver-gilt cross-reliquary with Byzantine enamels and a 15th-century painted triptych with Christ blessing at the centre, Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist at the sides.
Historical information based on the studies by Maria Luisa Agneni and Vincenzo Girolami preserved in the archive of the former Basilica website.