Museo Diocesano di Milano

The Diocesan Museum is born of the Ambrosian Diocese, which expresses the reflection in art and especially the historical and ecclesial identity. It preserves and promotes the valuable artistic heritage of the Diocese, enhancing the historical and religious significance: the encounter with the beauty of the artwork takes on new importance in this context and meaning thick.

The first idea for the Diocesan Museum dates back to 1931, when the Blessed Ildefonso Schuster, archbishop of Milan, addressed to the clergy a letter entitled to the sacred art and a diocesan museum, which encourages the creation of an institution specifically dedicated to promote and refine the love of art at "people dedicated to God" and at the same time seeking to prevent the squandering of considerable artistic heritage of the Diocese. The suggestion was accepted only in 1960 when the Card. Giovanni Battista Montini signing an agreement between the Curia and the Municipality of Milan in which it provides for the restructuring, at the expense of the Opera Diocesana for the preservation and dissemination of the faith, of the Pavilions Sant'Eustorgio, indicated as the site of the new Museum. In fact this convention is not ratified and initiatives remain suspended until the eighties: only then Cardinal. Carlo Maria Martini starts the project of reconstruction and rehabilitation of the cloister, entrusted to the office of architect Lodovico Barbiano Belgiojoso.

The new museum was opened on 5 November 2001.