The Treasure of the Holy Land

Up until the 7th January, 2025, the city of Florence (Italy) is hosting the exhibition "The Treasure of the Holy Land at the Marino Marini Museum. The beauty of the sacred: the Medici Altar and the gifts of the Kings", which traces the history of Christianity and reveals over 500 years of devotion and sacred beauty. 

For the first time in Italy, in the church of St Pancrazio, 108 works are on display, mostly from the Terra Sancta Museum in Jerusalem, which houses the Treasure of the Holy Sepulchre. The exhibition, enriched by loans from Italian museums and private collections, traces the complex intertwining of patronage and religious worship, guiding visitors on a fascinating journey through the centuries, the genius of artistic creation and the spirituality that helped shape the cultural roots of the Christian West.

Religious objects, jewels, ornaments and sacred vestments, codices and canopies, which over the centuries have been preserved by the Franciscan friars and are now under the protection of the Custody of the Holy Land,  at the end of the event they will return to Jerusalem for the establishment Terra Sancta Museum Art and History, in the friary of St Saviour.

Fr. Francesco Patton OFM, Custos of the Holy Land, underlined how "in the last 20 years the Christian communities of Jerusalem have started a general movement towards the enhancement of their heritage: archives, libraries, inventories, restorations and documentation, with the intention of establishing Christian history and identity in a place where their presence is openly diminished".

 The Holy City, in fact, already houses a Jewish museum and one of Islamic arts, whilst a Christian one is missing: from there the idea of the Terra Sancta Museum project was born: "It is more precisely a network of museums, including the Terra Sancta Museum - Archaeology, located in the Sanctuary of the Flagellation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Terra Sancta Museum - Art and History, still under construction, at the convent of St. Saviour," said the Custos.

Regarding the Ornament, that is, the Altar donated at the end of the sixteenth century by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando I de' Medici, to the Holy Sepulchre and now on display at the Marini Museum, Fr. Francesco commented: "I like to think that this work unites the Church and to be able to admire it there is no more beautiful setting than Calvary, the place where Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself for the salvation of all. This is also the meaning of our presence as Franciscan religious: to be present for everyone, and even more so in these difficult times. The hope is that this exhibition and the Terra Sancta Museum in Jerusalem will be places to bring people together. In this Holy Land afflicted by hatred and division, it is necessary to build bridges, propose new initiatives, open horizons. This hope is part of our Christian identity and is released precisely from the empty tomb of the Risen Christ."

The Treasure of the Holy Land at the Marino Marini Museum. The beauty of the sacred: the Medici Altar and the gifts of the Kings.
Marino Marini Museum, Piazza San Pancrazio, Florence (Italy)
Open every day (except Wednesday) from 10.00 to 19.00.
For more info: www.museomarinomarini.it