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Museo
delle Arti
Monastiche
Le
Stanze del Tempo Sospeso
Monastic
Art
Museum
as
Rooms beyond Time
Monastic
Art Museum
is hosted in the cellars of the Serra dè Conti Town Hall. Objects that
have been found in the Monastery of Maria Maddalena, that is just a short
way off the museum, are kept there.
The
Clarisse nouns of the Monastery have opted for the Constitutional
seclosure.
Their convent is so open to the outside world. They can have contact with
the outside, they can host pilgrims, but they can’t leave the convent.
The
rooms where the museum is hosted are fascinating. The large rooms with
brick walls, covered with cross and barrel vaults remind of the times when
the nuns would spend their time in prayer and work.
They never neglected meditation. Working was in fact an important aspect
of their lives but it should never overcome the time spent in silent
prayer.
The
museum setting is really harmonic.
The ancient wardrobes and chests in fact are well matched with the modern
style of displays and illustrative panels. The visitor can so experience
an interactive tour.
The
museum is also known as “The
rooms beyond Time”,
because the object where found in wardrobes, cupboards, chests.
Some of them gave the impression to have been left there with unfinished
works in order to be finished in a short time.
The
museum also offers the chance of travelling back to the past. There is in
fact a theatrical tour where actresses’ voices surround the visitor and
take him back to the XVI-XVIII century.
They explain the usage of some objects and also tell the story of a
Clarisse noun life at the time.
Visitors
can also admire the everyday life objects nuns would use such as utensils,
the “spezieria” where the nuns would make herbal treatments, or the “lavoriero”
where looms where kept, fabrics dyed, trimmings and silk flowers made and
where they realized items through ceroplastics.
The
monastery also had an important educational role. Rich girls would in fact
enter the monastery to learn the art of weaving, sewing and embroidering.
They were then employed in vestments.
© 2007
Liberation Ventures Ltd.
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