The Museo Diocesano di Cosenza is located between the Archbishop's Palace and the Cathedral Church in the premises of the former Diocesan Seminary, thus serving as a bridge between yesterday's history and today's. It represents an ideal starting point to discover the city and get to know the vast Archdiocese, as it collects remarkable and precious artifacts from the Cathedral and other churches in the area in a single path. It was inaugurated on June 25, 2013 after an almost seventy-year wait.
It houses works recovered from some Churches of the Diocese, including the beautiful altarpiece of the Annunciation (1545) attributed to the Negroni school belonging to the Church of Turzano, now Borgo Partenope. The "Commissions" Room collects paintings, silverware, and vestments commissioned by the archbishops of Cosenza in the centuries-old history. Worthy of mention are: the "Pope's" chalice, a large work in silver and filigree from Marano Marchesato, the two ivory statuettes attributed to the school of Michelangelo, and the glass chalice from Celico from the sixteenth century. Then follows the vestments room, with significant seventeenth-century artifacts in good condition and four wooden statuettes from the Cathedral's treasury along with a sixteenth-century crucifix.
The most significant work, emblem of the city, is the precious staurotheca - or reliquary cross - in embossed gold, vermicelli filigree, enamel, adamantini, and rock crystal, from the twelfth century. Tradition has it that it was donated by Frederick II of Swabia on the occasion of the consecration of the Cathedral in 1222.
Worthy of mention is the "Torquemada" chalice from the fifteenth century of Iberian workmanship from the same period as the pedestal of the Staurotheca. The deep Marian devotion can be seen with sixteenth-century icons, seventeenth and eighteenth-century paintings, and part of the rich treasure of the Madonna del Pilerio, protector of the city and the Archdiocese, enriched with golden crowns, jewels, precious stones, and jewelry.
In the Art Gallery, the splendid canvas of the Immaculate Conception by Luca Giordano (seventeenth century) is preserved, along with the precious San Gennaro by Andrea Vaccaro or Pacecco De Rosa (seventeenth century), from Luzzi, and the evocative Marian paintings by Giuseppe Pascaletti (eighteenth century).