We are the beating heart of Savona’s historical, artistic and religious culture.
A visit to our Museum Complex is an experience to be had and repeated, for it is a complete plunge into art history: extraordinary architectural bodies tie together sublime works of painting and sculpture and narrate them by focusing on important events and world-class historical figures.

Evidence of the original and vanished cathedral overlooking the sea and the pre-existing Franciscan monastery are preserved in the cathedral.

Here emerge the distinguished works commissioned by Savona’s famous Renaissance popes Sixtus IV and Julius II, primarily the extraordinary Sistine Chapel overlooking the ancient cloister and the precious wooden choir transferred from the ancient cathedral.

Here in the cloister overlooks the Bishop’s Palace with the apartments that housed Pope Pius VII for a few years as a prisoner of Napoleon.

The mystical atmosphere of the Cathedral is a reminder that the mission of the museum complex unifies spirituality with the emotional impact of the preserved artistic and cultural heritage.

In the cloister at the center of the complex, you can return to linger for a moment of peace and meditation-it will be a visit to take with you, in your heart.

1. The Cathedral N.S. Assunta, built in the early 17th century in elegant late Baroque forms, contains valuable paintings and sculptures inside. The oldest ones come from the Gothic cathedral placed on the Priamar fortress and destroyed by the Genoese in 1543.
2. The Sistine Chapel, was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV, the same pope who commissioned the Sistine Chapel in Rome. It was the funerary chapel dedicated to house the mausoleum of Sixtus IV’s parents. It was later completely renovated in the Rococo style.
3. The Wooden Choir, a rare example of 16th-century wooden inlay, commissioned by Pope Julius II Della Rovere and saved from the destruction of the ancient Gothic cathedral.
4. The Museum of the Treasury, located in the premises of the ancient Masseria, collects the excellence of the pictorial, textile and goldsmith art of the holy city.
5. The Rooms of Pius VII elegant and sober in the livid atmosphere of Pope Pius VII prisoner of Napoleon, with the original furnishings made under the direction of Gen. Chabrol for the papal stay.
6. The Franciscan Cloister., the former cloister of the Franciscan convent that stood before the building of the new Cathedral, now the architectural junction between the Cathedral, Sistine Chapel and Bishop’s Palace.