Museo statale di Mileto

Inaugurated in 1997, the museum was born after the agreement between the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the Diocece of Mileto-Nicotera-Tropea, the Provincial Government of Vibo Valentia and the town of Mileto. Placed in the city center, near the Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral, it is housed in a 19th century Bishop’s Palace.The Museum exhibits an important art collection, set on two floors, with works dating from the late Imperial period to the 19th Century. The rooms on the ground floor show roman materials, probably coming from the ancient site of Hipponium, as well as Medieval artefacts from the ex Benedectine Abbey of Holy Trinity and from the Old Cathedral. Fragments of stained glass and capitals of Norman art (11th-12th Century) are of particular interest. The first room on the upper floor is dedicated to documents of the 14th Century, made up of what is left of the monumental sarcophaguses of Ruggero Sanseverino and Giovanna D’Aquino and other works of the so called  “Master of Mileto”. The other rooms on the first floor are dedicated to a rich section of Holy Art. It is possible to admire clerical garments, many silver artefacts, an ivory crucifix by Alessandro Algardi, a famous 17th Century sculptor, and some devotional paintings, like a St. Nicola from Bari’s icon (17th Century) and the Giuseppe Naso’s “Madonna della Pace” (19th Century).